Tom McClintock

What you are doing is upsetting their own natural guidance, by inducing them to enter rivers that normally their common sense would tell them to stay out of.

Well, there are a lot of folks that think that the human population is now seriously endangered.

California is suffering what hydrologists suggest may be the worst drought in 1,200 years; certainly it is the worst drought in recorded history.

You have no moral justification other than you favor the fish over the human population?

The public sector works exactly the opposite. They attract capital by being less efficient, less innovative, and then coming here and demanding more money to cure these inefficiencies.

During the last 30 years, we have seen an 80 percent decline in the timber harvests from the National Forest Service lands.

I would hope that you would know how much those resources were worth.

I think we have gone too far from the original intent of the Endangered Species Act.

I, for the life of me, don't understand why we don't allow such things as captive breeding programs to meet the ESA requirements.

It reminds me of the Vietnam War maxim, 'We have to destroy these habitats to save them,' and that is exactly what these policies have done.

To add insult to insanity, when they tear down the Iron Gate Dam, the Iron Gate fish hatchery goes with it; then you do have a catastrophic decline.

It seems silly to me.

Droughts are nature's fault. Water shortages are our fault.

That WRRDA bill with those provisions was supported by every member of this committee, Democrat and Republican.

The legislation by Congressman Hastings is based on numerous hearings held by this subcommittee and the full committee on the impediments to construction of new reservoirs.

We cannot build dams if we cannot get the dams approved, and that is the whole problem that this bill addresses.

We will not solve our water shortages until we build more dams, and we will not build more dams until we fundamentally reform the environmental laws that make their construction cost prohibitive.

What I want to briefly say is how important it is for all of us to be responsible stewards of our natural world, and how important the Endangered Species Act is to preserving the natural treasures we have for now and for future generations…

I want my grandchildren to have the opportunity to see the amazing mating display of the prairie chicken.

One example is the Klamath River, where there has been a continuing movement to tear down four perfectly good hydroelectric dams because of the impact on salmon.

When species are gone, they are gone forever. You cannot bring them back; they are gone from the planet earth.

This past fall 800,000 acre-feet was released out of dams, knowing we were going into a potentially catastrophic drought.

So, I am disappointed, although not surprised. This has been the theme of the Majority since they took control of this House and the committee.

Our Constitution is founded on a separation of powers. Congress has the sole authority to make the law, but the President has the sole authority to enforce it.

The Federal Government only controls 25 percent of the land area of the District of Columbia