PROTECTING PLACES WE LOVE

On 2026-08-31, Representative Gabe Vasquez (D-NM-2) delivered a floor speech titled "PROTECTING PLACES WE LOVE" in the House.

PROTECTING PLACES WE LOVE

Congressional Record, Volume 172 Issue 137 (Monday, August 31, 2026) [Congressional Record Volume 172, Number 137 (Monday, August 31, 2026)] [House] [Pages H5261-H5262] From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [ www.gpo.gov ] PROTECTING PLACES WE LOVE (Mr. Vasquez of New Mexico was recognized to address the House for 5 minutes.) Mr. VASQUEZ. Mr. Speaker, I rise today to speak about patriotism and what it means to be a patriot in this great country. The American experience is one that we all share. It bonds us together under one Constitution, and as lawmakers serving in these hallowed halls, we have the privilege of carrying forward [[Page H5262]] one of the world's greatest democratic ideas through one of its most deliberative bodies. Fortunately for the American public, that experience includes over a century of bipartisan support for another one of America's greatest and best ideas: the creation, shared stewardship, and enjoyment of our Nation's public lands, so that we may continue to hunt, to fish, to take our families camping, to discover America's history, and to unravel the great mysteries and gifts that can only be found in our Nation's national forests, national parks, BLM lands, and wildlife refuges. Long after the creation of the U.S. Forest Service in 1905 by Republican President and conservationist Teddy Roosevelt, Americans of all political stripes have continued the legacy of conserving our public lands for all Americans, for multiple uses--both for our enjoyment and for the domestic production of natural resources, a careful balance that requires bipartisan and local support. Let me remind this body of the tremendous work of U.S. Senator Frank Church. The Senator's impact on this Nation's wilderness, wild and scenic rivers, and land and water conservation is to be celebrated. In particular, he should be lauded for the way in which he went about passing many of our Nation's bedrock public land laws that stand until this day. You see, Senator Church was a quiet, careful workman who worked across the aisle to strike compromise and pass overwhelmingly bipartisan legislation such as the Wilderness Act of 1964, the Land and Water Conservation Fund Act of 1965, and the Wild and Scenic Rivers Act of 1968. This was an unprecedented period of patriotism and public lands where bipartisanship flourished, and Congress worked as a unified body to protect our Nation's most precious resources. In 1964, the Wilderness Act passed the House by a whopping 373-1 majority. That same year, the Land and Water Conservation Fund Act passed by a voice vote in the House and a 92-1 vote in the Senate. In 1973, the House passed the Endangered Species Act in a landslide 355-4 vote. Even Nixon, not known as an environmentalist, in 1972, proclaimed that what began as an environmental awakening must mature finally into a new and higher environmental way of life. Believe it or not, there was a time which in this body we crafted win-win models of public land legislation. That is why I helped establish the first bipartisan Public Lands Caucus with former Interior Secretary and Montana Representative Ryan Zinke. Today, we have the potential to piece together the remnants of bipartisan political consensus and provide a powerful framework for modern conservation and public lands initiatives. Working together under this patriotic caucus to achieve wider bipartisan agreement, I believe that we can mediate conflicts between natural resource users and protection proponents and demonstrate that economic development and conservation are not mutually exclusive. Today, foreign companies have spread their tentacles and sprawled into our forests, rivers, and national monuments, all in search of a quick buck. Paired together with short sighted proposals from this administration that threaten to undo the Roadless Rule, to eliminate the Public Lands Rule, to shrink our national monuments, to open sensitive habitat in the Alaskan Arctic Refuge to drilling, to narrow regulations of the ESA, to shrink the U.S. Forest Service, to rob crucial maintenance funds from the National Parks budget, and just recently to sell off part of Yosemite National Park to a private developer, we are in deep, deep trouble of losing what both Democrats and Republicans have long fought to conserve and to protect. Public lands improve every American's quality of life. They provide abundance and liberty. We must fight to ensure access to the American Dream, and that includes access to public lands and a healthy environment. The truth is, Americans love nature. Hunters, anglers, and families alike agree that public lands are patriotic. Let us renew these concepts of bipartisan cooperation and protect our shared patriotism, even if it means standing up to our own party and this administration in the wake of the largest wave of attacks we have seen to our public lands in our Nation's history. Mr. Speaker, I know that I will be doing my damndest to protect the places we love in New Mexico, across the West, and this great Nation. I hope that my colleagues in this body can put partisanship aside and have the courage to do the same. ____________________