I want to thank you for having this hearing, and I want to thank all of my colleagues, mostly from Colorado, but also from the whole West, for being here.

It is beyond comprehension unless you see it, and it is beyond avoiding. So now we are trying to deal with it.

I just want to emphasize something that Congressman Powell has said, which is in Colorado, at least, we are really in a crisis situation.

It seems to us as we do this climate change bill, which ultimately can help with the bark beetles, that we might be able to get incentives for folks to remove some of the downed trees, the woody biomass.

I would feel that woody biomass is an economic value. But we have to save our loggers.

All of us from Colorado know, Madam Chairwoman, that this is a terrible problem in the West, in particular, in Colorado.

What do we do in the longer range? For example, if we pass climate change legislation today, that is not going to help us deal with this crisis situation; but we hope it will help us in the long run.

All of these projects have been on time, under budget, and maybe most importantly they have had the full support of all of the voters in the regional area.

Union Station is going to be the core of Denver's FasTracks program.

It really helps cement Denver as the national model to how to complete major transportation projects.

I urge everyone on this Subcommittee to get to know him and work with him over the following years.

Congratulations to everybody associated with Metro State for bringing home this impressive championship--a victory of which all of the people of Denver and the State of Colorado can be very proud.

Today I honor the NCAA Division II National Basketball Champion Metro State Roadrunners from Denver, Colorado.

We don't need any more timber roads. Construction of timber roads uses U.S. taxpayer dollars to pay for the business costs of the timber industry, and results in the degradation of soil, water quality and wildlife habitat.

I don't think that's smart horse-trading, Mr. Chairman.

If you pull out your calculator, Mr. Chairman, you'll find that 440,000 miles is enough to encircle the globe 17 times; that's ten times more road miles than we have in the Interstate Highway System.

I returned from my trip resolved to redouble my attempts to conserve these resources for future generations.

I urge my colleagues to support the Miller amendment to protect roadless areas in our National Forest System.

We don't need any more timber roads. Construction of timber roads uses U.S. taxpayer dollars to pay for the business costs of the timber industry, and results in the degradation of soil, water quality and wildlife habitat.

The taxpayer ends up paying the cost for these damages--and too often the damage cannot be undone.

These timber roads initiate erosion of soil, deposit sedimentation into streams, damage water quality, degrade fish habitat, fragment wildlife habitat, disrupt wildlife migration routes, and destroy the quiet beauty of our National Forests.

I'm afraid this Conference Agreement would become the supplemental that ate the surplus.

I cannot support the $15 billion funding package proposed in this Conference Agreement for H.R. 1141

And I cannot support that misuse of power and abuse of the public's trust.

Congress acted responsibly to reduce government waste last week, voting 419-1 to pass H.R. 436, the Government Waste, Fraud & Error Reduction Act.