Norman D. Dicks: “I rise today to substitute, I was always a substitute, it seems like, for the gentleman from Illinois [Mr. Yates], and…”

“I rise today to substitute, I was always a substitute, it seems like, for the gentleman from Illinois [Mr. Yates], and to talk a little bit about this Interior appropriations bill. Mr. Chairman, I certainly want everyone here to know that I have enjoyed the 21 years that I have had an opportunity to work with the gentleman from Ohio, [Mr. Ralph Regula], who is the new chairman on this committee and has served for many years, and worked under the gentleman from Illinois, [Mr. Sid Yates] when he was chairman. We have a very good bipartisan committee that tries to work together on these important natural resource issues. Obviously, many on our side today are quite unhappy about the fact that we did not or will not get an opportunity to have an up-or-down vote on the National Endowment for the Arts, but we had a vote on the rule. We lost by one vote. Now we are going to consider this bill. I also believe that there is a lot of good that comes out of this bill. The Interior appropriations bill provides funding for the National Park Service. It does provide funding and has in the past for the National Endowment for the Arts and Humanities, for the Forest Service, for the Bureau of Indian Affairs, for the Bureau of Mines, for many of the energy conservation programs and alternative energy programs of the Department of Energy. So this is a very positive piece of legislation. It also provides funding, as I mentioned, for the Indian tribes in this country.”