Tom Cole

If you are not there and do not have these urban-based centers where so much of the native population is now off reservation and doing other things.

I want to say how much I appreciate your emphasis on the energy part of this and just kind of make a point for the record if I may, Mr. Chairman.

The tribe owns the land, and the tribe ought to be free, to develop its resources.

This really is a huge problem jurisdictionally because historically you gave tribes the ability to have jurisdiction over their people but you did not give them any jurisdiction with people on their land that were not of their tribe

It is a nightmare problem in Oklahoma, the allotment situation, so what is the feasibility?

Frankly, you cannot really assess the needs if you do not track them anyway, you do not know if you are doing any good.

It is a huge problem for us. We have had enormous growth.

Because the need is real and you are quite right, the trust obligation does not cease simply because you are not on a reservation or in an area of jurisdiction.

I have been to the facilities in Oklahoma City and Tulsa and they are terrific, and we get a lot of folks that would not get health care that are from either their reservations or areas of historic jurisdiction that have it, so thank you.

Thank you for the example you provide in the reinvestment of tribal funds back into education, back into services.

It just flows right back.

Mr. Chairman, you can see what our problem has been for about 500 years. There are a lot of Choctaws.

If I may, I just want to, for the record, thank you and thank Chief Pyle, who is just a remarkable leader.

Part of the Choctaw Nation is in my district and I just do not want that to apply to every part.

That is exactly right, Mr. Chairman. That is exactly right. I was hopeful we could get it done in November or December after the elections but hopefully we can push that along this year.

I agree. I understand the funding need as well, but I just want to point out for the record, Mr. Chairman, the Senate actually got that passed last year and we were very close in the House.

At the end of the day, attitude is everything.

I am all for shifting.

I think there really is a very strong bipartisan constituency for this sort of thing...

I think it is absolutely the right place to go with the additional money that you have asked for.

It is going to be a big disaster. A lot of people are going to get very rich, and markets are going to get manipulated.

I really want to say how much I appreciate the fact that at every point in your testimony that you talked about governmental units you included tribes.

My instinct would tell me, we are going down cap-and-trade because those of us that believe in taxing carbon, frankly, either do not think we can get the votes or do not want to have the vote; and that is why we are going to use…

I have learned a lot today, Mr. Chairman.

I am delighted, I want to go on record, this idea of having a contingency fund to deal with the fire problem.