Political Quotes

“Mr. Speaker, I yield myself the balance of my time. Mr. Speaker, again, I thank the gentlewoman from Hawaii (Ms. Tokuda) for her work on this bill. Mr. Speaker, before a lot was understood about the science of forestry, Teddy Roosevelt, maybe our original conservationist in America, understood that trees were the lungs of the Earth. They breathe in carbon dioxide; they breathe out oxygen, but he also understood that trees are kind of like the kidneys of the Earth. They are extremely important to protect watersheds. They are extremely important to maintain our ecosystems. It is what we are looking at today with the ohia tree and the importance that it has to Hawaii's ecosystem, to the people there, and to the economy. When we talk about an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure, figuring out what is happening to these trees and stopping that will save tens of millions if not billions of dollars in the future if damage is done to the watershed there in Hawaii. It is another example of how having a healthy resilient forest benefits everyone. We are not necessarily talking about wildfire. We are not talking about a tree that has timber value, but it has tremendous value in the ecosystem and the economy there in Hawaii. This legislation, again, will help focus Federal and State resources on conserving one of Hawaii's most important species. Mr. Speaker, I urge my colleagues to support the bill, and I yield back the balance of my time. The SPEAKER pro tempore.…”