Political Quotes

“Mr. Chairman, my amendment makes a series of modifications in the underlying bill and removes specific provisions related to the Endangered Species Act, the National Environmental Policy Act, and the Antiquities Act, at the request of my Democrat cosponsors from Texas, Mr. Gene Green and Mr. Marc Veasey. I introduced H.R. 200 in the early days of the 115th Congress. We have made many changes during the committee markup on H.R. 200. We adopted amendments authored by Ms. Bordallo from Guam, as well as from the Senate Modern Fish Act that passed the Senate Committee on Commerce with an overwhelming bipartisan majority. My manager's amendment eliminated some provisions in the bill that were most troublesome to Democrats, even though many outside stakeholders and Members on my side of the aisle considered those to be important components of the bill. The further spirited bipartisan compromise and willingness to support a number of Democratic amendments today--despite the rhetoric coming from the committee Democrats--our actions, our markup, and our willingness to work with House Democrats show that we have, in fact, been willing to work in a bipartisan manner. Mr. Chair, I urge my colleagues to support this amendment and the underlying bill, and I reserve the balance of my time.”