Political Quotes

“Mr. Chairman, I rise in support of my amendment of title VIII of H.R. 2954, which I originally introduced as H.R. 657, the Grazing Improvement Act. My amendment is a commonsense reform to require groups who are not substantially justified or directly affected by final Federal grazing decisions to pay for the legal expenses of the other party when they lose in court. {time} 1030 In short, this is a ``loser pays'' system to discourage frivolous legal challenges to Federal land management grazing decisions. Current law gives grazing permittees the right to a hearing in connection with grazing decisions and gives the ``interested public'' the opportunity to participate in the way Federal land is managed. However, it is doubtful that Congress ever intended to elevate the ``interested public'' to a level of equal standing to that of grazing permittees. In 1995, the Bureau of Land Management established grazing regulations that far surpassed the intent of Congress. Some were given the ability to participate in the administrative appeals process allowing them to sue if the nonpermittees disagreed with a final grazing decision. Since then, environmental groups have been increasingly effective at abusing the current appeals process, not to promote environmental health, but for the sole reason of removing livestock from Federal lands. Each year, hundreds of appeals are filed on grazing decisions by groups. The cost to ranchers can hardly be measured.…”