Political Quotes

“Mr. Chairman, this may seem like a very simple, straightforward amendment, but we do have an issue in construction. In the summer all across America, the cliff swallow and the barn swallow, which is a very common migratory bird--this is not an endangered species; it's not even a threatened species; it is a common migratory bird in almost every State in America--they travel back and forth, move around, and they love to nest around man-made objects. The law states now, currently, that you can't touch a bridge or any kind of construction if that barn swallow or cliff swallow is present there. So during the prime construction time, from early June through September, you can't do construction on many bridges, or construction companies have to hire people to go out and stand around the construction site to wave off the birds to keep them from nesting there to be able to fight this off during the earliest part of the season. There are numerous cases of this. In my own State of Oklahoma, let me just give you one example of that. In Ellis County, State Highway 46, they were painting a bridge. Just painting it; no construction, no anything else. The total project was estimated to cost $185,000. Because in the process of going out to check and verify they found a barn swallow there, they had to halt that until after September to come back and paint it.…”