Political Quotes

“I yield myself such time as I may consume. Mr. Chairman, let me summarize three important points from this debate. H.R. 687 reflects all five of the previous variations of this legislation. You are doing a post-NEPA with no enforcement. You are turning the regulatory process and the oversight process to the State of Arizona, which has weak mining laws and which is also not in a position to meet the requirements that have to be part of this prior to any land exchange: that would be hydrology; that would be sacred-site consultation; that would be a NEPA review as to water issues that could occur and subsurface damage. To the area around Apache Leap and Oak Flat, those become important issues. The sanctions issue is important to resolve against Iran--that we are not in violation by creating a partnership in an exchange with a foreign corporation that is doing business with Iran. I think the most important issue is the taxpayer issue. We here in this Congress--certainly many of my colleagues on the other side of the aisle and on this side of the aisle as well--talk so much about the taxpayer; talk so much about budget cuts and how to relieve the taxpayer; talk so much about deficits and how we need to reduce those deficits to the benefit of the taxpayer. We have no jobs bill, but we talk about helping the taxpayer.…”