Political Quotes

“Mr. Chairman, the gentlewoman has raised an interesting point. On the surface, there is some merit to what she says. However, there is one big flaw. She wasn't aware because she wasn't in the hearing, but when BLM came and spoke to our committee, I said to them: States like Colorado are doing a good job already. Why don't you just regulate the States that don't have their own regulation? Well, they said: No. We want to regulate everybody. They really didn't care whether States had good regulations in place or not. So I think they gave away the game. They just wanted to put more regulation on industry. What that means is that you have two sets of regulations to have to wade through, and that is going to shut out marginal plays, it is going to shut out jobs of people that would have been in those marginal plays. So BLM really wasn't interested in listening to the States. They rejected that suggestion, and they just want to regulate everybody. Let's let the States do what they do best. They know their territory, they know their water, they know their geology. They are doing a great job already. No one ever raised any examples of where the States had not done a good job. So let's pass this amendment and BLM can manage the land and not do what the States are already doing. That is the way it should be. Mr. Chairman, I yield back the balance of my time. {time} 0100 Ms. McCOLLUM.…”