Political Quotes

“I simply want to point out and express my appreciation to the gentleman from Minnesota [Mr. Vento], my friend, for his candor in his remarks in support of this particular amendment. He said, and I quote quite directly, ``This leaves the power in the hands of the President.'' And indeed that is precisely what the proponents of this amendment want to do. They want to leave the power under the Antiquities Act in the hands of the President. Mr. Chairman, that might be a good idea and under prior Presidents probably was a good idea. But, regrettably, the most recent incident demonstrates that that power is awesome and can be, and in this case regrettably was, abused. Even if my colleagues do not think it was abused in this case, they ought to be concerned about the power of the President to act unilaterally; to, as he did in this case, ignore the Utah delegation; to, as he did in this case, ignore the Governor of Utah, who is sitting in a hotel in Washington, DC, desperately trying to see the President. I suggest that people who believe in sunshine, who believe in process, and who believe in the rule of law, should reject this amendment, because it leaves in the President's hands the power to unilaterally designate a national monument of 50,000 acres, as our bill would do, but to go beyond that and to designate 1.7 million, or 5 million, or 10 million, or 22 million, or, for that matter, 22 billion acres, and to ignore the Congress in doing that.”