Political Quotes

“I thank Chairman Westerman for the recognition. Mr. Speaker, the gentleman from California, Mr. Huffman, and I legislatively agree on approximately nothing. This is truly an anomaly. This legislation is something that he and I absolutely agree upon. We have worked together on it. I thank the other gentleman from California, Mr. Harder, for the introduction. We have worked together on this legislation for years. Nutria are an unbelievably invasive species. Coastal Louisiana loses a football field of wetlands approximately every 90 minutes. A football field of land is lost, which is a result of wave action and it is a result of saltwater intrusion, a result of subsidence, a result of replumbing of coastal Louisiana in a destructive manner. Nutria absolutely contribute to that. Mr. Speaker, what happened between probably the late 1950s to the early 1990s, there was a huge fur trade. Tens of millions of nutria were actually harvested to provide fur coats. That market declined. As a result, the population of nutria just absolutely exploded. In fact, one nutria can provide on average about 13 offspring a year. You do the math very quickly. Mr. Chairman can do the math very quickly. Actually, I take that back. The gentleman is from Arkansas. I will do it for him. They can proliferate very, very quickly and have a profound impact. They will burrow into levees.…”