Asa Hutchinson: “Reclaiming my time, that, of course, is the case, but a vote for the Hutchinson amendment is not, as it has been…”

“Reclaiming my time, that, of course, is the case, but a vote for the Hutchinson amendment is not, as it has been suggested, a vote against this initiative or a vote against having a river in your State participate in this program. I think it gives the wrong appearance and the wrong suggestion for Members of the Senate that somehow their vote on this amendment might influence whether or not rivers in their States would be selected and be so designated. There are many who came and asked me to sponsor an amendment similar to what was passed in the House in which funds were simply cut off for this program. I resisted the desire to do that, because I didn't think that the goals, as stated for the initiative, were bad, but I did believe that there needed to be some protections, and some assurances. Senator Dodd says that this is somehow some backdoor way of killing the program. Well, the House in effect did that. I resisted that because I didn't want to indicate I wasn't supportive of the goals of the initiative. But I did believe that we needed to have a process that ensured that it would guarantee the rights of private property owners along these precious historic rivers would be protected.”