Rick Hill: “before I speak to this amendment, I want to join my colleagues in complimenting the chairman and the ranking member for…”

“before I speak to this amendment, I want to join my colleagues in complimenting the chairman and the ranking member for their hard work on this bill. This is obviously a bill that has been produced from a great deal of bipartisan cooperation. I think the gentleman from Ohio (Mr. Regula) and the gentleman from Washington (Mr. Dicks) deserve recognition for that. It is a very important bill. Our public lands are extraordinarily important. As we just witnessed, there are some very contentious issues associated with those, but I think that the one point I want to make is that this Congress and I think the country is going to miss the chairman's leadership that he has provided to this subcommittee. As the Members here know, term limits will be imposed in the next Congress and this will be the last time that he will be permitted to offer this. His understanding of the issues and knowledge of the facts about our forests and about our public lands astounds me. The help he has given me has been very much appreciated. I want to let him know that. I compliment the gentleman from Washington (Mr. Dicks) as well. Mr. Chairman, I rise today in support of this amendment to H.R. 4578. The purpose of this amendment is to make a change within the economic action program of the State and private forestry appropriation. $500,000 should be moved from the economic recovery base program component and disbursed as a special project in support of the Traveler's Rest site in Montana.”