Mike Simpson

What I would like is--and when I say blow it up, is to create, you know, in your mind a theoretical in an ideal world, the utopia that you talked about, what would it look like...

But when is say blow it up, you missed the key point there. I said theoretically blow it up.

I also want to thank you for your willingness to assist my office with some complex Forest Service issues in my home State of Idaho.

Our job is to do what we think is right, and if we get dis-elected we get dis-elected, that is okay.

I support what they are doing. It is an old theater that is on the National Historic Registry.

One of the big complaints they have is that consolidation at Albuquerque and the difficulty it has made their job.

I think we should thank him for the job he has done over the last several years.

I hope you can do what you can to tie the mission of the agencies to the future.

The reality is, when we look at reorganization, which is what this hearing was kind of about, what the GAO report, those things that we attribute to the Forest Service, if we decided to move it to Interior, those functions could all be…

I would just close this comment by saying that, you know, we recognize that there is a direct economic, cultural, social and natural resource relationship between healthy environment, healthy ecosystems and healthy communities.

In many respects, returning to this subcommittee is like coming home.

Today's oversight hearing of the U.S. Forest Service marks our first opportunity to work together on the many issues and challenges before the Interior Appropriations Subcommittee.

I sit on the Energy and Water Subcommittee, and we have looked at a lot of the contracts that have been done with the Department of Energy.

I would just note that there has been a question of contract management under every administration, not just the previous administration.