George Miller: “I rise in opposition to the amendment. I would hope that we would reject the amendment by the gentleman from Texas. I…”

“I rise in opposition to the amendment. I would hope that we would reject the amendment by the gentleman from Texas. I think it shows a misunderstanding of what has been taking place in this region of our country. When we talk about ecosystem management in the case of the Northern Rockies, we are really talking about building on a community of work that goes far beyond the belief that we are going to simply classify the flora and the fauna and habitat and wildlife. These communities, I mean communities, talking about little cities and towns where people work, are interested in having this so that they can have a road map on how they are going to continue to provide the economic activity for those communities and these impacted areas. This is, in fact, one of the few areas of our country where when we talk about ecosystem management and where it has been talked about in long term, maybe even coined in this area of the country, the fact is they brought in the communities, because as we move to multiple use of these public lands, the people from the West say that they are always foreign, especially my colleagues on the other side of the aisle.”