Debbie Dingell: “I do want to thank and commend my dear friend, the gentleman from Alaska [Mr. Young], and I do want to note the fine…”

“I do want to thank and commend my dear friend, the gentleman from Alaska [Mr. Young], and I do want to note the fine work of the gentleman on the Refuge System Improvement Act of 1997 and tell him what a great pleasure it was for me to work with him, what a good piece of legislation I think it is. And it brings back great memories that he and I shared of years past, when he used to work on the same kind of questions back when this business was done in the Subcommittee on Fisheries and Wildlife Conservation on the Committee on Merchant Marine and Fisheries, where the gentleman from Alaska [Mr. Young] was a valuable member, as he is today a valuable member as the chair of the Committee on the Interior, and I thank him, and I had a few remarks which I think would just help say nice things about him and others who have made possible a significant advance in terms of protection of a great national treasure, our refuge system. Mr. Speaker, today we find ourselves in the very fortunate position of having agreed to legislation which almost everyone agrees will better protect species and habitat on our Nation's wildlife refuges.”