Political Quotes

“in the spirit of compromise, however, the gentleman did provide language and we did put in, I would say to the gentleman, his precise language. Now, let me go to the second point, and that point is the 18 months. We had a 12-month period for study before construction, although this thing has been studied 30 years, as the gentlewoman and the gentleman from California (Mr. Calvert) had mentioned. We had given a 12-month period for study. We sat down in a good talking session with Secretary Babbitt at the Salton Sea, with Secretary Babbitt, his staff and himself. He said essentially to me, I do not think I can do it in 12 months, but he did say in that conversation they thought they could do it in 18 months. We worked with his staff. His staff sat in on a number of these meetings, and they said 18 months. When we met with Senator Boxer, she wanted us to move from 12 to 18 months, so we did it. We said, we will compromise, we will give 18 months. Another thing we were concerned about, of course, was judicial review. We did not want lawsuits to stop action on the sea while the sea died. I think the gentleman can understand that, because as the gentlewoman from California (Mary Bono) has shown us, the sea is on a death watch. It is very predictable. At 60,000 parts per million, as it gets saltier and saltier, all the fish die, so we have to move now.”