Political Quotes

“Mr. Chairman, I address my remarks to the Interior Department part of this bill. This bill contains the same unacceptable provisions that the first Interior bill contained. My good friend from Louisiana, the chairman of the committee, Mr. Livingston, spoke about meeting the President halfway with this bill. This bill does not meet the President halfway. It does not even get off the starting blocks. With respect to the Interior bill, this is the same bill that the House twice rejected by recommitting it. It is the same bill that the President wisely vetoed. This bill calls for the continuing destruction of the Tongass National Forest in Alaska. It mandates increased logging. It slashes funds for Native American programs by $325 million. It increases the poverty of the Indian community. It cuts the Low-Income Weatherization Assistance Programs. It contains a moratorium on adding new plants and animals to the endangered species list, no matter that some of the animals are on the verge of extinction. It still removes the Mojave National Preserve in California from the Park Service and gives it to the Bureau of Land Management, where it will not receive the same quality of review and care. It cuts the National Endowment for the Arts. It cuts our Nation's culture to the bone. And it still treats native Americans like second class citizens by denying them their legal rights and by desecrating their sacred land.”