Political Quotes

“Following the gentleman from Missouri (Mr. Graves), the point that he raises about the real endangered species here is the Midwestern farmer. It is not the Northwest rancher. It is the Midwestern farmer that is at risk here. I have been on every stretch of that river from Gavins Point down to Nebraska City. It is a long way. I have been on most of it twice. There is a lot of habitat up there for the least tern, the piping plover, and the pallid sturgeon, and we are creating more and more habitat as the years go by, and we are doing it based on pretty shaky science. As I look up and down that river, and I will tell the Members that the further south one goes, the shallower the banks are and the more likely it is to flood. When they unleash their spring rise, that means that the water backs up through our drainage system at the rate of about one mile a day, 12 to 15 miles from the River, more than 1 million acres at risk here. And just that piece alone is enough to have more economic impact than this species that was created as a matter of convenience, a marriage of convenience between the fisheries and recreational interests and the environmental interests.”