Political Quotes

“Mr. Speaker, I yield 3 minutes to the gentleman from Virginia (Mr. McEachin), who is a new member of the Natural Resources Committee. Mr. McEACHIN. Mr. Speaker, the BLM's Planning 2.0 initiative has made important, overdue updates to our process for drafting resource management plans. These plans govern our use of more than 175 million acres of public lands. The way in which we use those lands deeply affects the environmental quality, public health, and all Americans' quality of life. It is vitally important that we get our planning right. This rule promotes transparency and consensus, creating more and earlier opportunities for public involvement in the planning process. It encourages greater use of high-quality scientific information, and it provides for a big-picture, landscape-level response to challenges like wildfire management and invasive species. The effect is to strengthen, streamline, and democratize a process that had previously bred litigation and delay. Mr. Speaker, I have to wonder: Which of these changes does my friend across the aisle oppose? Mr. Speaker, in the last week, the House voted to disapprove three other rules that protect public health and environmental quality. I am disturbed by that pattern, and I am disturbed by the haste with which we have moved, especially since all of these rules took years to create and craft. Mr. Speaker, I urge my colleagues in the majority to think of their children, their grandchildren, and all the generations to come.…”