Political Quotes

“The Strategic and Critical Minerals Production Act--again, it is hard to say that name with a straight face when they are defining strategic and critical minerals in such a broad way that it involves basically the dirt under our feet, the sand under our feet, the gravel in our drive. When you define something like that and try to mean everything, you wind up meaning nothing. Rather than actually doing something to protect minerals that are critical for our defense, for our economy, this bill waters that down by expanding this access to sand and dirt and gravel, maximizing mining companies' profits at the expense of our health, our water, our land, and our natural resources. Furthermore, the underlying bill would damage our economy by placing the use of the mining industry above the many other important economic uses of our public lands. I will give you some examples. How about hunting? angling? hiking? biking? These are the economic drivers in my district, Mr. Speaker. If we didn't have an environmental review process and large gravel pits and silver mines were put in place with wild abandon, we would lose jobs. We would lose most jobs in Eagle and Summit Counties which relate to the tourism industry. The beautiful, pristine, outdoor public lands that attract visitors from across the country--probably from your district, Mr.…”