Joseph Skeen: “Let me say to the gentleman, who is existing in oblivious and euphoric unawareness, that is the closest I can come to…”

“Let me say to the gentleman, who is existing in oblivious and euphoric unawareness, that is the closest I can come to being real kind about this issue, I understand his problem. He feels so good that he is cutting money. Let me say to the gentleman, by cutting funding for the program there will not be any personnel available to take care of the health and safety issues that he is espousing because that is built into the program. I ask the Members to vote ``no'' on this issue. Let us go back a little bit in history. We had the perfect answer to the kind of predatory control in the United States at one time with the formula known as 1080. It did not cost near as much as it does for the program that we have today because it took care of the problem. It was benign and it was species-specific. But, no, the animal rights people decided that this was a lethal method that was objectionable to them, and we did away with it, we banned, the use of 1080 in Western ranges. So they came up with this program, and it is a participation program in which ranchers, farmers, and others put up money, that is to some degree, matching the Federal funding that is involved. Yes, we want to cut the budget, and how, but we need to take care of a problem that is so onerous and so critical to those people who are livestock raisers and grazers.”