Senator Jennifer Fielder's Doublespeak

SJ 15 Draft Bill - "So I don't see this bill as a movement to transfer lands." - JF

As a result of some of the evidental screenshots of presentations, blog and sites, I have had to utilize a large format page to save you clicking to open larger views, instead of my normal website layout.

Click here to return to EMWH.

Doublespeak is defined as, "language that deliberately disguises, distorts, or reverses the meaning of words. Doublespeak may take the form of euphemisms, in which case it is primarily meant to make the truth sound more palatable. It may also refer to intentional ambiguity in language or to actual inversions of meaning. In such cases, doublespeak disguises the nature of the truth. Doublespeak is most closely associated with political language." Or, a lie by any other name ...

Below is a summary of:

  • Sen. Jennifer Fielders background
  • EQC SJ 15 meeting with her doublespeak (lie) statements
  • Documentation to prove that she has an agenda for SJ 15 and is a threat to our Public Trust.

At the recent MT Republican Party Convention (6/21/2014), which Senator Jennifer Fielder was the Vice Chair of, they passed a Montana Republican Party Resolution Supporting Granting Federally Managed Public Lands To The States (This is a theft, modern day neo-carpetbaggers of our Public Trust).

As a result of the ensuing controversy Montana Republican Party Resolution, this Party Platform subject was brought up at the June 26th EQC SJ15 meeting by Rep. Leiser and Sen. Bradley Hamlett. Audio found here. (audio actually begins about the 10:32 mark so I would suggest moving the slider over rather than wait 10 minutes). This SJ15 work group has largely focused on Federal Lands Transfer, pushed by Sen. Jennifer Fielder. In response, Sen. Fielder lied, "So I don't see this bill as a movement to transfer lands". Hogwash. Her own blog, facebook page and website speak loudly to the contrary. She has repeatedly associated the SJ15 work group with transfer of federal public lands, which is documented in screen shots below.

Background information:
Jennifer Fielder runs for the Senate in 2012 (campaign pdf), ironically with a platform of "Keep public lands open to the public" (6th bullet point on pg. 1). Here are her Oil and Gas contributors to her campaign which donated the max allowable .
4 of the 5 Wilks:Dan, Farris, JoAnn & Staci (Cisco, TX); BP North America, Houston, TX; Denbury Resources, Plano, TX; Montana Petroleum Association; Jerry Croft, Croft Petroleum, Havre, MT; Toni Finstad (Keesun Corp), Cut Bank, MT; Mac MCDermott, Shelby, MT (member of MCR, LLC, an oil and gas exploration and production company. He also currently serves as Treasurer of the Montana Petroleum Association and President of the Northern Montana Oil & Gas Association.); Patrick Montalban, Cut Bank, MT.

Fielder is elected to the Montana Senate in November 6, 2012, then gets appointed to the Senate Fish and Game Committe, as well as the Natural Resources Committee.

As a newly elected month old senator, Fielder submitted the draft of the bill that created this interim work group on December 5, 2012 - Interim study on public land management Senate Joint Resolution 15 (SJ15).

This work group was supposed to be about - A JOINT RESOLUTION OF THE SENATE AND THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES OF THE STATE OF MONTANA REQUESTING AN INTERIM STUDY EVALUATING THE MANAGEMENT OF CERTAIN FEDERAL LANDS, ASSESSING RISKS, AND IDENTIFYING SOLUTIONS. But what it has turned into is an opportunity to push a Montana version of the Federal Public Land Grab which is trying to gain a foothold in the West, creating a bill to make this work group a permanent subcommittee to further the federal public land grab agenda.

Senator Jennifer Fielder is a member of the Environmental Quality Council, where she was appointed the Chair of the EQC SJ15 Work Group. She is using this vehicle to advance her agenda of public land theft.

April 2014 - Western lawmakers gather in Utah to talk federal land takeover - Sen. Jennifer Fielder not only participated, but helped organize the meeting in Utah.

"It’s simply time," said Rep. Ken Ivory, R-West Jordan, who organized the Legislative Summit on the Transfer for Public Lands along with Montana state Sen. Jennifer Fielder. "The urgency is now."

 

 

June 26th EQC SJ15 Meeting

Rep. Ed Leiser stated that through Tim Baker, Governor Bullock has plans to address this situation, the bill they have been discussing (SJ15 creating a permanent subcommittee to address federal land management) would be redundant. "In light of developments in regard to the Republican Party Platform unanimously agreeing to pursue transfer of federal lands as a part of their platform", he expressed concern that the proposed committee would be 1. redundant with what the Governor is proposing and 2. would turn into a forum for transfering federal lands. "At this point I am going to say I am not going to support this committee.

Sen. Bradley Hamlett brings up a news article in which 2 Republicans stated that the Republican Party resolution on Federal Public Lands Transfer was not unanimous, Hamlett stating that Sen Jennifer Feilder was there and could verify that. She stated, "Yes, I could verify that, but I don't know what that has to do with this bill draft."

15:10, Hamlett continues, "What it has to do, I think, what I hear from Rep. Leiser, he is concerned about intent. I guess we should flesh that out if we can.

15:22, Sen. Fielder replies, "Well, the Republican Party did unanimously pass the support to develop a plan for timely and successful acquisition and management of the public lands in Montana. And it was unanimous, that's actually part of the language that's in the Resolution itself. In fact there was a motion to spell 'unanimously' correctly. So I'm not sure where Rep. Connell is coming from, but it was unanimous. There's a lot of support for that because we see it as the really only long term way to correct the problems that we're seeing on these lands that are managed by a very distant federal government that is out of touch with the people of Montana and have priorities that are opposite to good land management.

That being said, that is something I have studied quite a bit, looked into quite a bit, I do believe that placing the lands in the hands of Montanans would allow Montanans to care for these lands better than Congress is doing.

16:20 (Fielder cont.), But this bill draft here is not about that. It's my interpretation from our discussion and my participation in it is genuine that this extension of the committee is an effort to continue what we have been doing and that is exploring, identifying the problem, facilitating communication and exploring the solutions. Now this bill here, this draft is pretty heavily weighted with an awful lot of representatives from the federal government (EMWH note: actually, those proposed members are considered non-voting representatives.), in fact there would be more of them than there would Republican legislators on the committee. So if it's up to the committee, if you want to keep this effort, if you think there's value to it, I found great value in it, I think the transfer of public lands is one of the areas that could be looked at, but there are numerous ways that we can work on compelling management improvements on these public lands. As I've said all along, I'm interested in anything that we can do to make sure that we are reducing the fire hazard, and we're getting people back to work, we're taking better care of our environment, were being wise stewards of these lands, which right now is not going on for a variety of reasons driven from the federal level. So I don't see this bill as a movement to transfer lands. This bill is an effort to continue working towards solutions in any way we can. I think it's a pretty good example of cooperative effort."

36:27, Rep. Leiser reiterates his concerns, "lingering in the background, I gotta tell you, is this concern that committee is going to go down a path that is not prudent, so if there is a way that we can meet the needs of the counties and the citizens of Montana under existing authority and with the governors support ahd his staff, then I think that's prudent."

38:00, Sen. Hamlett expressed, "I think that plank in the Grand Old Party's platform is causing concern. And I think we need to understand a couple things here and that is if, say tomorrow the Federal Government gave Montana a quick claim deed to the whole thing, Montana could actually go bankrupt the first time we started to have a big fire because then we would have to take over all those responsibilities and things like that. There's a lot of pieces and parts to what would go on here that could actually bankrupt the state and as a legislator I have to look at that."

41:05 Hamlett speaks about the influence of the party plank platform, that it is a political party issue, not the legislature. "The message has been sent clearly from the Governors office, any proposal to take over the Federal land, he'll probably veto. It's virtually impossible to override a veto. So then it begs the question, 'Is this a move to get soemthing on the ballot for political advantage?' I don't care what party you're in this things volatile." Hamlett also suggested that whatever vote the EQC give on this subject, it shouldn't be by a simple majority, but by a 3/4's majority.

Doublespeak documentation
Now let's address Senator Jennifer Fielder's statements above and provide her own documentation to refute the Doublespeak. Since links to others websites can be altered or disappear, I am using screenshots. But here are the links to the sources. Senator Jennifer Fielder's website, her blog and her MT Federal Land Study presentation at the American Lands Council website.

So when I say a "public land steward", I am referring to the Public Trust Doctrine which establishes the management of land, wildlife, fish and waterways for the benefit of the public and future generations. But when Fielder refers to being wise stewards of these lands, she is not referring to the Public Trust Doctrine. Numerous sources have stated the intention to resource extract and sell off public lands (again, this is another page that will have to be thoroughly documented.) This is part of what I am talking about doublespeak.

First, lets look at her statement, "So I don't see this bill as a movement to transfer lands." Remember, this is the SJ15 bill draft. Below is a page of her website with this sentence, which I highlighted - "Although the SJ-15 working group is considering a variety of solutions, one of the more comprehensive ideas presented to the legislature's Environmental Quality Council (EQC) is transferring federally managed public lands to the state."

Clearly she is having a "lapse in memory" as to the association of this bill and a movement to transfer of public lands.

 

 

The Montana Federal Lands Study presentation linked above, page 48.

It addresses the Federal HR 1526 (which is a transfer of managerial/administrative authority to the States), but concerning SJ15, it states Assert State-Local Jurisdiction and Reclaim State Ownership. Please note that this is listed as being SJ 15 Solutions, which is mentioned again at the bottom.

Again, the association of the SJ15 bill and Federal Public Lands Transfer, only the States never owned these lands!

 

 

From Senator Jennifer Fielder's blog on April 23, 2014, bottom paragraph, in relation, again, to SJ15, "Transfer of Public Lands is the most significant proposal under consideration at this time."

I have only been listening to Fielders statements on this subject for a short time and I already have her Transfer of Public Lands mantra down. I dont see how anyone can miss her SJ15 Transfer of Public Lands agenda.

 

From her blog on May 26th she posts an oped that appeared in a number of Montana newspapers. The title was, Transfer of Public Lands moves into the national spotlight. Towards the bottom she brings up the SJ15 work group, welcomes public comments and questions, provides her email address for contact and states, "To learn more about this and all the issues I am working on or to sign into my communication network visit ...jenniferfielder.us. Complete information about transfer of public lands can be found at ...AmericanLandsCouncil..." Oh, and owning a blog, one of the key ways to network (website as well) is what you list as key words, which search engines like Google use. At the very bottom of this shot you can see that she intentionally chose transferpubliclands as one of the labels to attach to this article.

I dont even need to say it again, do I?

 

 

On May 30, 2014 (from her blog) Fielder does a presentation for the Montana Public Land Users and Sportsmen's show at Missoula. Please note the presentation board to the left with the printed out presentation pages. These are pages from the Montana Federal Land study I linked above and will be addressing below. This study was at the American Lands Council site. So it is important to note that she is using pages from the study and cannot claim they are not associated with her or her message and the Doublespeak I will address below. Ironically, after choosing the pages I wanted to address, they also turned out to be the pages she had chosen for her presentation which I found later on her blog. I have labeled the page numbers in red so that you can note them.

 

The Doublespeak passage from her statement at the SJ15 meeting on June 26 at the top. These pages below show what Senator Jennifer Fielder means when she addresses the statements below. Her statements are not exclusive of Federal Public Lands Transfer as she tries to imply, but are the reason for and are listed as the solution.

Senator Jennifer Fielder - "As I've said all along, I'm interested in anything that we can do to make sure that we are reducing the fire hazard (84), and we're getting people back to work (88), we're taking better care of our environment (85), were being wise stewards of these lands (86), ... So I don't see this bill as a movement to transfer lands. This bill is an effort to continue working towards solutions in any way we can." Please remember the first presentation slide I showed the SJ 15 Solutions - Reclaim State Ownership/Federal Public Lands Transfer.