Jim Inhofe

It is the policy of the Congress to recognize, preserve and protect the primary responsibilities and rights of the States to prevent, reduce and eliminate pollution, to plan the development and use of land and water resources.

Not only did we overwhelmingly defeat that legislation but both of them were defeated the next time they came up for reelection. The people really are plugged into this thing.

If there is no further business to come before the Senate, I ask unanimous consent that it stand adjourned under the previous order. There being no objection, the Senate, at 6:28 p.m., adjourned until Thursday, May 7, 2015, at 9:30 a.m.

Senators should expect a cloture vote on the pending substitute amendment at 10:30 a.m. tomorrow. ____________________

I think we have been through the same thing, those of us up at this table.

I think if they were to complain about one thing in the way the process worked, ... is that they didn't really have a seat at the table when a decision was made.

I can assure you that the majority on this committee don't agree with that.

That is a good statement.

Dale Hall was a very good Oklahoman.

I hope people keep in mind that Republicans and Democrats are both very sensitive to this beautiful world that we have and the environment that we live in.

Well, thank you. Just kind of building on what Senator Crapo is saying, there is kind of an irresistible temptation by a lot of people, when their argument is not too good, to start name-calling, and I sit here and it is very difficult…

The mission, though, originally, and you probably have done a lot of study on this, all the way back to 1970, was to list, but also to delist if you are successful.

Why is it that we are spending all this time on listing and not delisting?

It doesn't matter who we talk to in the rural areas. It can be farmers who are concerned about, can they go out and plow their fields without disrupting this critter's habitat?

I said at the beginning of this Congress that our Committee would conduct vigorous oversight of the Obama administration's environmental policies.

The Endangered Species Act has to be reformed to clarify the focus and achieve real results.

Let me applaud Senator Sullivan for his passion, his representation of his State. It means a lot to us and to the system.

I have always felt Senator Markey to be a very close friend.

I think he would agree that the Endangered Species Act can--and must be--improved.

The ESA recovery rate is a mere 2 percent, even though the entire Federal Government spent $1.2 billion on species conservation in 2013.

The answer to that is a firm no.

What is my answer to the people when I go back to western Oklahoma and they say, how much longer is it going to be until we do something with this vast, this growing beetle?

The Fish and Wildlife request for fiscal year 2016 is another $23 million specifically for listing alone.

This will have profound impacts on the habitat and on our ability to continue to produce timber in the Black Hills.

I think sometimes people try to say that conservatives or Republicans are not concerned about a species.