Byron Dorgan: “I am tempted to talk about the intelligence of sheep and enjoying munching on leafy spurge, but I will not do that. My…”

“I am tempted to talk about the intelligence of sheep and enjoying munching on leafy spurge, but I will not do that. My colleague describes the real serious problem with spurge and nap. We have known in North Dakota when you put sheep on the land, baby spurge and leafy spurge is gone and the sheep seem happy. Having said that, I go back to make a point on this issue of, we, the people. We have Lewis and Clark money to celebrate the bicentennial in a number of different places in legislation in several different appropriations bills. It was a wonderful expedition, perhaps the greatest expedition certainly in the history of this country, perhaps ever. The greater the education and the bigger the celebration of that, the better for our country and the better for our children to understand the richness of that history, as well. My only point is, as we think through this in the longer term, this money is in the bill and I would like to see if we can find a way with the administration to put it where I think it really belongs, and that is education. The other point I would make in terms of priorities, if we have $15, $20, $25 million here and there, we have urgent priorities, especially dealing with Indian health, that we need to find some additional resources for. I did not mention in my opening statement something my colleague from Montana mentioned, and that is the forest fire issue. Fire suppression money has been borrowed from every account. It is the wrong way to do business.”