DENVER (AP) — On the eve of the 80th anniversary of the forced internment of 120,000 Japanese Americans at the onset of World War II, Republican U.S. Sen. Mike Lee of Utah is getting backlash for holding up the creation of a national historic site at a former internment camp in rural Colorado.
U.S. Sen. Michael Bennet, a Colorado Democrat, says he has the support of 99 of the chamber's 100 senators to pass the Amache National Historic Site Act, which would make the remote southeastern Colorado landmark a national historic site eligible for additional preservation assistance.
But his bill, co-sponsored by Colorado Democratic Sen. John Hickenlooper, failed to pass by unanimous consent last week due to a lone objection from Lee, who opposes adding new federal lands without adequate funding and in the past has advocated for “swaps” to prevent expanding federal land ownership.
“Senator Lee does not object to this specific historical site. He does object to any increase in the total amount of land owned by the federal government as the federal government fails to adequately care for the land already in its vast holdings,” Lee’s spokesman, Lee Lonsberry, told The Associated Press.
Wow, who is this senator Lee? You never hear that kind of intelligence from politicians. Yes, it's a deadly serious problem when the Fedgov already owns half the land in the country and is more concerned about 'racism' then proper stewardship.
Wish he'd just oppose the monument, period, on the grounds that it's stupid and hateful.
I don't know a lot about him, but Lee seems pretty reasonable. He is usually staunch conservative (GOP), but has sided with Bernie Sanders against US entanglement (Saudi/Yemen fiasco comes to mind.) I think he is Mormon, which makes sense being from Utah.