Political Quotes

“Thank you, Mr. Chairman, and thank you Madam Ranking Member. I also want to thank the chairman of the full committee as well as my cosponsors in this measure: Mr. Polis from Colorado, Mr. Shimkus from Illinois, and Mr. Jones from North Carolina. So as not to risk snatching defeat from the jaws of victory, I will be brief. I would like to say that this was my idea and it is a wonderful thing, but this represents taking care of business that has been knocking around for probably a decade or more as far as the Forest Service is concerned. We are not moving the frontier into national forests; we are simply giving them the ability to administratively dispose of those lands that have become not attached to the national forest and have no management or land use characteristics with respect to the managing of a national forest. {time} 1545 The other thing I want to point out is that it will allow them the ability to dispose of well into six figures' worth of acres, potentially, over the next few years, much more than last year, which was almost nothing. The most interesting thing is that the resources generated by this will stay with the Forest Service for use under their various charges as opposed to disappearing into that sometimes black hole in space, referred to as the ``United States Treasury.'' I urge nationwide bipartisan support.”