Political Quotes

“I appreciate the gentleman's courtesy in permitting me to speak on this and the elements that he just put into the Record. These are tough issues. The Bonneville Dam, one of the elements here, is in my district. I have been involved with these issues, literally, for decades. I have watched the give-and-take. Part of what we are facing today is the legacy of our moving in to create the Bonneville system without really knowing what we were doing when we started. There was a rich fisheries existence. Rumor had it that you could actually--people claimed you could walk across the backs of the salmon when they were spawning. The dams implemented, good for producing energy, not good for the fishery system, both in terms of the river and the marine ecosystem that depends on it. And it is not just the commitment to the Endangered Species Act and the environment. We are dealing here with commitments to Native Americans who have been ill-served with their treaty rights. That is one of the reasons why we have litigated this for years, because they had valid treaty rights as a sovereign people, and the United States violated them; and only recently, under the pressure of litigation, were we responsive to their needs and some changes were made. Now, it is not just the current Federal judge. We have had objections through the Judiciary looking at some of the compromises that people have made. I understand the political pressures.…”