Political Quotes

“Again, might I may say, Mr. Chairman, this bill has been debated. It passed out of this House 14 times--14 times--with consultation. And with all due respect to my friend from Gwich'in, I would like to take a count of the caribou they have harvested in this last year and the year before. It is a very small number. The people who live there, right on the shores and with them, are saying this is okay. We developed Prudhoe Bay. We have more caribou now than we have ever had. This is, again, a sham. It is such a dishonest presentation of something that is not fact at all. But, again, in society, people can do that. I understand that. But we ought to understand one thing: This bill should never have came to the floor. Number two, it is not the first time. There was consultation. We did pass it--again, 14 times--out of this House, even when you were in control, and now it is the wrong thing to do. The Senate didn't pass the bill once, and Bill Clinton beat it to death. So I am just saying, again--not much use talking about it much more-- that we can go ahead and vote on this today, but this amendment solves one of the problems: true consultation with two groups of individual Alaska Natives, both having some say in it, one totally not listened to because you have never asked them, and that is an unfortunate thing. Mr. Chair, I reserve the balance of my time.”