Political Quotes

“I thank the gentleman from Oregon (Mr. Blumenauer), my good friend. I am always amazed how many people in this body know what is better for Alaska. Four times in this last 2 weeks some of you have come out: I know what is best for Alaska. This Roadless Rule was never to be. It was Obama's decision, and we appealed it, and we won in court. This is State land, a lot of it, we have access to, and we are going to continue that. You say about climate change, old trees don't consume, new trees do. They clean the air out; old trees do not. We are not talking about, really, timber here, because you can't have a timber sale unless it is put up for sale. We are talking about access across Federal lands, because State land is one side--State land and Federal land in between. We are asking, very frankly, just to have access. And that is the law. Under the ANILCA law, there was to be no more. Obama changed it by regulation. We are changing it again. Now, I don't understand where he got this information, how he got it, what he has seen, where he has gone. You talked about tourism. Tourism is great for you people in Oregon who want to come to Alaska, but it doesn't support our schools. It doesn't support a growing society. It, frankly, supports old growth, which has no value at all, other than to look at for a short period of time when it dies. We had 32 forest fires last year, because you don't allow roads into an area so we can manage them, and that is wrong.…”