Political Quotes

“I listened to the presentation of the author of this bill. I have been in this House 48 years. We have been arguing about this ANWR for 40 of those years. We have passed it out of the house 14 times. And by the way, it was established by a Democrat President and a Democrat House to allow the 1002 areas to be explored if Congress said so. And that is what we have done. Now we have a sponsor from California who doesn't know beans about this business talking about big oil and about Trump. This has been a policy of this Nation to allow drilling there if the Congress spoke, and we did so. Under the tax bill, yes, but 13 times before that this House passed the legislation to have the 1002 explored. Just keep in mind, we are talking about an area of a 19-million-acre refuge and areas left inside, the 1002 area--the map behind me, if anybody can see that little tiny red dot, 2,000 acres, less than the size of Dulles Airport, less than the size of the Capitol grounds. And yet, we are trying to say, no, no development. We are trying to say that is not right, this is the last pristine area. May I say again, it is not the last pristine area. We have had approximately 30 years of development in Prudhoe Bay, the same type of terrain, same species of animals, same amount of caribou. In fact, we have more now than we had before after we started drilling. So this bill is a sham. And I listened to this with great interest.…”