Tom Latham: “I think you have hit a fundamental point, and that is is the Government a servant to the people, or as it appears today…”

“I think you have hit a fundamental point, and that is is the Government a servant to the people, or as it appears today, that role has reversed, and almost the people today are servants of the Government? It is wrong. The Government is here only to serve the people. It is a free country. Talk about regulatory relief, in my district wetlands is a huge issue, where today we have people from the Government coming out and delineating a small pocket or pothole in a farm that has been in production for 90 to 100 years, and their forefathers--my own farm has been in our family for 105 years. A lot of that ground was hand tilled, dug by hand 80 or 90 years ago. Now someone is coming in and telling us how we can and cannot use that land, because somebody somewhere in Washington or wherever says that that eighth of an acre there is an official wetland. By some of the definitions today, over half of my congressional district in 1993, the flood year, could have been a permanent wetland by their definitions. It is absolutely outrageous, and I am very proud of the fact that we put the pressure on the administration to finally get a moratorium as far as wetlands delineation.”