Tom McClintock

Are we seeing an adversarial relationship begin to develop between this Government and the people, and particularly between the U.S. Forest Service and the users of our public lands?

If you want timely salvage operations in Yosemite or anywhere else in the country--if that's really your goal--fund the Government.

Basically what we are doing is consigning what was once forestland to become brushland for the next several decades?

We need to take immediate action.

What he didn't explain was that process takes a year or more, and by the time the normal environmental review of salvage operations has been completed, a year from now, what was once forestland will have already begun converting to…

I would counsel my colleagues on the other side of the aisle, if you want timely salvage operations in Yosemite or anywhere else in the country--if that's really your goal--fund the Government.

Four hundred miles of roads are now in jeopardy. If nearby trees are not removed before winter, we can expect dead trees to begin toppling, risking lives and closing access.

As time passes, the value of this dead timber declines, until after a year or so it becomes unsalvageable.

The situation is particularly urgent because of the early infestation of bark beetles, which have already been observed attacking the dead trees.

It is estimated that up to 1 billion board feet of fire-killed timber can still be salvaged out of the forests that have been devastated by the Yosemite Rim Fire, but it requires immediate action.

The critical issue before us is the level of spending, since the level of spending automatically sets the combined level of current and future taxes.

It seems to me they are two sides of the same coin, that deficits are taxes.

That is an example of what I like to call McClintock's third law of political physics, which is the more we invest in our mistakes, the less willing we are to admit them.

But even factoring that out, just in nominal terms, 60 percent increase in Federal spending in 4 years is rather breathtaking.

The greater restraint in spending, the greater overall economic growth these nations have had.

Coolidge, Truman, Kennedy, Reagan, Clinton all cut spending relative to GDP.

If we do decide to reauthorize this Act, I would hope that a principal component of the reformed act would be the promotion of hatchery production of all the species regulated by the Act.

What we are suggesting is supplementing the populations with hatchery born fish to assure abundant populations.

My previous district included the Klamath River. When I was first invited up there to take a look at it, the Administration is pushing to tear down four perfectly good hydroelectric dams because of what they describe as a catastrophic…

The problem is we don't include them in the population counts, and then 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 problem.

My point is that fish hatcheries, appear to me, to play an absolutely central role in assuring abundant populations of all species, including those regulated under Magnuson-Stevens.

It did so with no public testimony and despite widespread local opposition.

This sweeping order... is asserting authority that Congress has hitherto reserved to itself.

So it is voluntary, then, in the sense that it is imposed upon you without consultation.

This sweeping order...is asserting authority that Congress has hitherto reserved to itself through the Wild and Scenic Rivers Act.