Political Quotes

“First of all, I want to associate myself with my good friend from Oregon. I agree completely with everything he said, and I am going to agree with our subsequent speaker, Mr. Miller, who played an essential role in getting the original Endangered Species Act passed. It has been wildly successful, Mr. Chairman, preventing species extinction. More than 99 percent of listed species still exist today. Species recovered under the Endangered Species Act are also off the charts. The latest analysis found that 90 percent of listed species are recovering at the rate specified by their Federal recovery plan. Successful species delistings are also increasing--delistings. Five years ago this month, the Fish and Wildlife Service finalized its rule to remove the bald eagle from the endangered species list. What a success story. But for those who want to open up even more of our public lands to resource extraction, the law is a major inconvenience. So a working group, comprised entirely of Republican Members of the House of Representatives, was established by the House leadership to come up with legislative proposals to weaken the act. Today's bill is drawn directly from those recommendations. It would deem whatever data that States, local governments, and Indian tribes submit to the Federal Government as the best available science.…”