Raúl Grijalva: “this draft report that I'm holding is entitled The National Scenic Trail Feasibility Study and Environmental Assessment.…”

“this draft report that I'm holding is entitled The National Scenic Trail Feasibility Study and Environmental Assessment. Like many products of the Federal Government, it's lengthy and complicated. But let's be perfectly clear. We're not waiting for a separate environmental assessment. It's all done and it's all in here. Even though it's labeled a draft report, the National Park Service doesn't do drafts like a high school assignment does drafts. This is a 75-page bound document, eight full color fold-out maps. It draws on more than 90 sources, from books on dinosaur footprints to books on the pioneers who first set foot on those trails, from scholarly histories of the ancient Earth to histories of the small communities along the trail. This study is done. In reality, the process of changing the study from a draft into a final report is a bureaucratic one; it is not a substantive one, which makes this amendment dilatory, at best, and not a substantive one. The draft study was completed in August of 2006. It has been under review at the Department of the Interior for 17 months. The National Park Service tells us that it needs approximately one dozen signatures from various Interior officials in order to be considered final. That's all we're waiting for.”