Political Quotes

“Mr. Chairman, I rise in opposition to Mr. Lowenthal's amendment to strike the language that would defund the administration's efforts to kill coal, oil, and gas development. My colleagues and I included this language for good reason. We are trying to protect our schools, our infrastructure, our communities, and the very livelihoods that depend on these revenues. I know that royalty and valuation mean very little outside these walls, but to my constituents across Montana, it means funding schools and empowering local communities. Mike Johnson, an operating engineer from Billings, I think sums it up best: I am a working man from Montana. I am not a doctor or a lawyer or anything, but I personally suffered from the Federal mismanagement of our public lands in western Montana. I am a displaced worker from a paper mill. I now work in eastern Montana, and people don't understand the impact these jobs have on our lives. I saw five about five of my friends commit suicide after the mill closed. My wife had cancer, and I lost my health care, and I lost darn good-paying jobs. The chairman of the great Crow Nation, Old Coyote, said: A war on coal is a war on the Crow people. Without Crow revenue, without revenue from coal, the Crow people faced a lifetime of despair and poverty. They have very few options but coal. Yet, this administration, at every turn, tries to prevent the Crow Nation from being sovereign and from having their choice to export and use their resource as they want.…”