Political Quotes

“Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume. Mr. Speaker, we have heard a lot about letting scientists make the decision, not letting others make the decision. But right now, courts are making the decision on the delisting of this wolf. We have heard testimony that, even though it is a bipartisan bill, even though it was people in the previous administration that first suggested delisting the wolf, we have heard testimony that if you support delisting the wolf, you must be an idiot. I don't think supporting this legislation means you are an idiot or you are trying to message something. I think it means that we want to see science implemented. I think it means that we want to let the scientists do their jobs. Mention has been made about Yellowstone National Park. I was actually in Yellowstone National Park this last summer and talked to scientists out there about the big fire in the 1980s. What many of us know about fire is that it is a natural occurring phenomena, and it mimicked a huge clear-cut in Yellowstone National Park. After the fire and all this vegetation started growing back, we saw a huge increase in elk and deer herds, and the wolf population increased right along with that. As a matter of fact, the scientists at the park told me that the greatest numbers of elk that they have had happened within about 10 years after the big fire out there. The greatest population of wolves that they had happened after that.…”