Byron Dorgan: “first, let me say how much I appreciate working with Senator Hagel on this legislation. As he indicated, the State of…”

“first, let me say how much I appreciate working with Senator Hagel on this legislation. As he indicated, the State of Nebraska has an abiding problem, just as the State of North Dakota, South Dakota, and all of the States up and down the heartland of our country. It is not just our states. I notice the Senator from Georgia is in the Chamber. Rural counties in Georgia, as well, are shrinking like prunes. What do we do about that? Will Rogers used to chuckle when he thought about what would get the Federal Government's attention. He said: If you have two hogs that come down with something and get sick in a barn someplace, you will have all kinds of USDA people coming down to find out what is wrong with your hogs. But not much will happen if you have other problems. No one will show up. I have an example that I would like to share with my colleague from Nebraska. In recent months, we had a little prairie dog fight. I will not go into all of the details. But prairie dogs took over a picnic grounds in the Badlands in North Dakota. They were going to do an environmental assessment. Then they did an EA. They did a FONSI, a finding of no significant impact. They had all these studies going on, and the Federal agencies got all cranked up about the prairie dogs, and they decided to spend a quarter of a million dollars to move the picnic grounds. I said: Look we are not short of prairie dogs in western North Dakota; we are short of people.…”