The 2016 National Republican Party Platform

On July 10, 11 & 12, I represented Wyoming on the Republican National Convention Platform Committee in Cleveland.  I served on the Natural Resources, Agriculture, Energy and the Environment Subcommittee.  The 112 members of the Platform Committee delivered a strong, CONSERVATIVE platform to the voters of America.  The platform plank of which I am most proud was developed with committee members from Alaska (Judy Eledge), Oregon (Donna Cain) and Nevada (Juanita Cox):

The federal government owns or controls over 640 million acres of land in the United States, most of which is in the West.  These are public lands and the public should have access to them for appropriate activities like hunting, fishing and recreational shooting.  Federal ownership or management of land also places an economic burden on counties and local communities in terms of lost revenue to pay for things such as schools, police, and emergency services.  It is absurd to think that all that acreage must remain under absentee ownership or management of official Washington.  Congress shall immediately pass universal legislation providing for a timely and orderly mechanism requiring the federal government  to convey certain federally controlled lands to states.  We call upon all national and state leaders and representatives to exert their utmost power and influence to urge the transfer of those lands, identified in the review process, to all willing states for the benefit of the states and the nation as a whole.  The residents of state and local communities know best how to protect the land where they work and live.  They practice boots-on-the-ground conservation in their states every day.  

This passage appears on page 21 of the new Platform.  

In addition, we call on the Congress and the impacted states to have final approval on any proposed new national monuments or national parks.  State sovereignty lives in the 2016 Republican Platform!

Read the whole document here:  https://prod-static-ngop-pbl.s3.amazonaws.com/media/documents/DRAFT_12_FINAL[1]-ben_1468872234.pdf