John W. Olver: “I just wanted to respond to comments made on the other side and, in fact, in part to agree with them. The gentleman from…”

“I just wanted to respond to comments made on the other side and, in fact, in part to agree with them. The gentleman from New Hampshire points out and agrees that the nature of the territory is quite different. Of the 2 million people living in the Connecticut River watershed area that is the subject of the Silvio Conte Fish and Wildlife Refuge Act, 80 percent of them live in Massachusetts and Connecticut, whereas 80 percent of the land involved in that area is in New Hampshire and Vermont, at least 80 percent of the total land area involved. And in terms of the amount of acreage that has been proposed after 3 years of study with hundreds of meetings, all of them public meetings, all over the Connecticut River basin, less than 20 percent of the very tiny amount of land being proposed as possible refuge sites actually occurs in the States involved, in the States of Vermont and New Hampshire. So the territory is very, very different.”