Senate Energy Committee Advances Bills Important to Wyoming

Senate ENR Committee advances Barrasso's American Voices in Federal Lands Act and Lummis' Wyoming Education Trust Modernization Act

Click here to watch Sen. Barrasso's remarks

WASHINGTON, D.C.- Today, U.S. Senator John Barrasso (R-Wyo.) delivered the following remarks at a Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee business meeting after the committee voted to advance S. 2262, the American Voices in Federal Lands Act.

This legislation was introduced by Barrasso and Senators Cynthia Lummis (R-Wyo.), Mike Crapo (R-Idaho.), Jim Risch (R-Idaho.), Dan Sullivan (R-Alaska.), Steve Daines (R-Mont.), John Curtis (R-Utah) and Tim Sheehy (R-Mont.). It defends the voices of American citizens by restricting foreign adversaries and artificial intelligence from providing input on federal land management rulemaking.

The committee also voted to advance the Wyoming Education Trust Modernization Act (S. 2273), which was introduced by Senators Lummis and Barrasso. The bill would amend Wyoming's State Act of Admission to provide the state's permanent school land fund with enhanced investment flexibility, potentially increasing annual returns for K-12 education.

Sen. Barrasso's remarks:

"Well, thanks so much, Mr. Chairman. I appreciate the positive vote on S. 2262.

"I want to thank you and ranking member for holding this important markup.

"This bill is called the American Voices in Federal Lands Act.

"I think it's an important bill.

"I believe it gives necessary guardrails for our land management agencies.

"And, I've become concerned about this lack of information on who was leaving comments-public comments-on the Bureau of Land Management.

"This happened at a hearing we had in the past. We had somebody from the BLM testify, and you may remember during that testimony, it had to do with public lands in Wyoming.

"And, so many negative comments were coming in, and all the locals were saying one thing, and basically asked who were the people making comments? Do we actually have a record of who's coming in comments?

"I raised concerns, you know, was communist China allowed to leave comments impacting how we use and manage our national resources?

"And, I wasn't able to get a response that said 'oh yeah, we're checking in to see who was coming in with the information.'

"We asked, you know, could AI be leaving them? Could bots be leaving them?

"And, there was no record. They just said, 'well we had all these comments against it.'

"It was peculiar to the people of Wyoming when you saw the number of comments coming in.

"And, at the same time, we hear reports of communist China wanting to buy farmland-ranch land-across the West.

"And, it was just enough of an issue that I wanted to put together this piece of legislation, to make sure that we know where comments are coming.

"We want every U.S. citizen, or groups and organizations representing those citizens, to have an opportunity to have their voice heard, and that's important.

"But, I don't want to hear that AI or bots or foreign adversaries are the ones who are impacting our decisions.

"And, these are important policies related to public lands.

"So, I thank you, Mr. Chairman, for bringing this to a vote today.

"And, I thank my colleagues for adopting it."

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