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a canyon where there was a wetland, which would have been the natural break to stop the fire from the other side. You see, they never needed to burn that land. These things happen in the course of fighting fire. It doesn’t mean they are right. But rare is it that somebody ends up 5 years in prison. Let me tell you what the senior judge said when he sentenced the Hammonds the first time, Judge Michael Hogan, senior Federal judge, highly respected in Oregon. He sentenced Dwight Hammond to 3 months and Steve to a year. There were different offenses here. He said: ‘‘I am not going to apply the mandatory minimum because, to me, to do so, under the Eighth Amendment, would result in a sentence which is grossly disproportionate to the severity of the offenses here.’’ The Judge went on to say: ‘‘And with regard to the Antiterrorism and Effective Death Penalty Act of 1996, this sort of conduct would not have been conduct intended under the statute. ‘‘When you ask, you know, what if you burn sagebrush in the suburbs of Los Angeles, and there are homes up the ravines, it might apply. Out in the wilderness here, I don’t think that is what the Congress intended. ‘‘In addition, it just would not meet any idea I have of justice proportionality. It would be a sentence which would shock the conscience, to me.’’ Senior Judge Mike Hogan, when he did the original sentencing. But, you see, under this 1996 law under which they were charged and convicted, it turns out he had no judicial leeway. He could not mete out a sentence that was proportionate to what the crime was. So yesterday, Dwight and Steve went to prison again. Dwight will be 73 when he gets out. Steve will be about 50. Meanwhile, in Harney County, on the ranch, Susie will continue to try and survive; 6,000-acre ranch, she needs grazing permits to make this happen. It would be a cruel and unjust act, by the way, if access to those grazing permits that allow that ranch to work were not extended. What possible good could come out of bankrupting a grandmother that was trying to keep a ranch together, while the husband sits in prison, her son sits in prison? What possible good? They will serve their sentences. There is nothing, short of clemency that only the President can offer, that we can do. But we can change that law, and we should, so that nobody ever is locked in like that for a situation like this, where a senior judge, literally, on his final day on the bench, says this goes too far, it goes too far. They appealed that, by the way, and lost. But I believe that the judge was right. We have to listen to the people. We have to understand why events like this are taking place in our communities. They are taking place in cities. We have witnessed that, and we try and get our heads around it.

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There are more people from the cities, so there are more Members from the cities. There aren’t many of us that represent these vast, wide-open, incredibly beautiful, harsh districts like the one I do. The people there love the land. It was the ranchers who came up with the concept of the cooperative management. It was the ranchers who loved Steens Mountain that know that for them to survive they have to take care of the range. b 1945 They are good people. Their sons and daughters, by a higher proportion, fight in our wars and die, and I have been to their funerals. So to my friends across eastern Oregon, I will always fight for you. But we have to understand there is a time and a way. Hopefully the country through this understands we have a real problem in America: how we manage our lands and how we are losing them. It is not like we haven’t tried here, Mr. Speaker. Year after year we pass bipartisan legislation to provide more active management on our forests so we don’t lose them all to fire, and we are losing them all to fire. We are losing firefighters’ lives, homes, and watersheds—great resources of the West. Teddy Roosevelt would role over in his grave. He created this wildlife refuge in 1908. There were some bad actors there in the 1980s, by the way. They were very aggressive running the refuge, basically threatening eminent domain and other things that took ranches. It was bad. That lasted for at least a decade or more. It has gotten better though. It is not perfect. There is a much better relationship, and the refuge and the ranchers work closer together. In fact, during this fire in 2012, the refuge actually opened itself up to the ranchers for hay and feed because theirs was burned out because of this big fire. So there was a better spirit there. But there are still these problems: the threat of waters of the U.S. shutting down stock ponds and irrigation canals and a way of life, the threat of fire every year that seems to not be battled right and just gets away, and no one is really held accountable; the continued restriction on the lives of the men and women who, for generations, have worked hard in a tough environment. It has just gone too far. It is hurtful. I hope people understand how serious this is felt and how heartfelt this is by those who pay their taxes and try and live by the law and do the right things and how oppressed they feel by the government that they elect and the government they certainly don’t elect, and how much they will always defend the flag and the country, and their sons and daughters would go to war, some will not come back—and they have not from this area. There is a better solution here. The President needs to back off on the

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monument. The BLM needs to make sure Susie Hammond isn’t pushed into bankruptcy and has her ranch taken by the government and added to those that have been. We need to be better at hearing people from all walks of life and all regions of our country and understanding this anger that is out there and what we can do to bring about correct change and peaceful resolution. It is not too late. We can do this. It is a great country. We have the processes to do it right. Mr. Speaker, I yield back the balance of my time. f

CRIMINALIZATION BY REGULATION The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under the Speaker’s announced policy of January 6, 2015, the Chair recognizes the gentleman from Texas (Mr. GOHMERT) for the remainder of the hour as the designee of the majority leader. Mr. GOHMERT. Mr. Speaker, I do appreciate the words of my friend from Oregon. These are difficult times, and it is even more difficult when unfairness comes from the United States Government with all its power, with all its resources, when it begins to pick on American citizens, when it uses its resources to snoop on Americans, especially when it uses resources to spy on Americans in order to help maintain power of the government over the people. One of the problems with ObamaCare is it provides every American’s medical records to the Federal Government—as if the Federal Government didn’t have enough personal information. The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau is in the process of gathering people’s credit card and debit card information supposedly to protect individuals. What we have seen in our Judiciary Committee as we have had hearings on the abuses by Federal Government bureaucrats is there seems to be this desire among different agencies and departments: They have no business having a SWAT team, but they want one. They want military power to go out and take people down whenever they get ready. For many years, Congress has not done an appropriate job of keeping in check criminal laws. There are far too many criminal laws, the number of which we don’t know exactly, but which allow a violation of a regulation to be a crime, which allows the full power of the Federal Government to go after individuals. We heard the horror story about the fellow from the Northwest trying the create a better battery. He gets run off the road by three black Suburbans, hauled out of his little gas-efficient car, thrown down on his chest, boot in the back, handcuffs on, and no idea what he had done. He never even had a traffic ticket. It turns out that he hadn’t violated any law necessarily, but he had mailed a package to Alaska

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