Maurice Hinchey: “one of the more unfortunate aspects of the present majority's rule of this House over the last several years has been…”

“one of the more unfortunate aspects of the present majority's rule of this House over the last several years has been this propensity to attach antienvironmental riders to appropriations bills. Essentially that is what we have here today in this particular context. Seven years ago, the administration embarked upon a plan to improve environmental management in the Columbia River Basin. All of the land affected by this plan, by the way, and very importantly, is public land. It is not private land. It is public land. It is land owned by all of the people of the country. So my constituents in New York as well as every constituent of every Member of this House has a stake in the development of this plan to manage important public resources in the Columbia River basin. That project has gone forward. It has gone forward very carefully, very intelligently, and in a very open way. An environmental impact statement has been produced. A supplemental environmental impact statement has been produced. All of the activities here have been based on good, sound, responsible science.…”