George Miller: “I do have an amendment to the legislation that would require that prior to the transfer of these facilities, prior to…”

“I do have an amendment to the legislation that would require that prior to the transfer of these facilities, prior to the transfer of title from the Federal Government to the State government that the Federal Government would get an appraisal as to the fair market value and the State would in fact pay the Federal Government in the fair market value for these assets. The fact is that we have been transferring these assets historically for many, many years from the Federal Government to the states without questioning the value of the property being transferred or the Federal taxpayer investment in these properties. But today is not the same as it has been in the last 20 years. That is, this is the first Congress that is operating under a firm target of balancing the Federal budget in the next 7 years. We see a whole hose of programs that are being cut, some much smaller in value than the value of these hatcheries, but the point is this, that no longer are we in a position simply to transfer assets of the Federal Government and receive nothing in return at a time when we are trying to balance the budget.”