William M. Thomas: “perhaps the chairman of the subcommittee was not on the floor when I indicated to him that this was something that came…”

“perhaps the chairman of the subcommittee was not on the floor when I indicated to him that this was something that came up when we got to maps that more precisely allowed us to more fully understand where the area was. I wrote a letter to the author of the bill on May 2 and did not get a response. The first paragraph says, ``It is my understanding that the Natural Resources Committee will be marking up your California desert legislation, H.R. 518, on May 4, 1994. I would like to take this opportunity to request that you consider offering an amendment to this bill on this subject that is brought before the committee.'' Mr. Chairman, I then go into an extensive explanation of why the amendment is needed. I got no response on that letter. I tried to follow the process. I introduced the amendment on May 16. I do not believe the gentleman was here when I reiterated that on May 25, there was a proposal which was unacceptable. On May 26, we countered with what we thought we wanted to do. On June 2, there was a reoffer which was unacceptable. On June 9 there was another counter. Later on June 9 there was a counter back, and today we have had two exchanges along the way over less than 1 square mile to try to save the taxpayers a couple of million dollars. Mr. Chairman, if the gentleman wants to enlarge discussion to the more than 7 million acres that are in the bill itself, this can be magnified just as this map was to discover all kinds of problems like this.…”