Political Quotes

“I want to thank the gentleman from Arkansas for yielding. Mr. Speaker, we have listened to our friends on the other side of the aisle talk about their desire for protecting wilderness areas and our natural resources, and I want to commend them for that. I agree with them, we need to do a better job doing that. As we have had an opportunity to talk in the past, Mr. Speaker, in a previous life I taught mountaineering courses, I led climbing trips, I led mountain biking trips, kayaking, and was a river guide. I spent more time out in these very areas that they are talking about than every single one of them sitting there combined. It is what I did. It is how I lived for years. And, Mr. Speaker, listening to this talk, I see an extraordinary disconnect, and let me be very clear. I have heard people saying that this is going to promote economic development and promote recreational opportunity. Mr. Speaker, that is not true. It is not fact. As a matter of fact, what happens under this legislation in these designations is that those very recreational opportunities that create economic activity are actually eliminated. They are prohibited under this act. You cannot do things like mountain biking. I will say, they finally came back and made some adjustments on wilderness areas where you can leave descending devices--thank you--but you can't do these things. So how in the world are you going to make more money and have more economic activity?…”