Political Quotes

“Mr. Chairman, I oppose the Dicks amendment. I do not know what is happening in this debate. We seem to be off on an individual. We are not talking about the masses, the little people involved in this process. For too long private property owners of America have been asked to sacrifice property for government ventures. Nameless faces, bureaucrats who believe in quasi-science instead of sound principles, have trampled all over the constitutional guarantee of just compensation for the land that is taken for public use. This has to end. In my 18 months in Congress, I have been astounded by the number of people who believe that all America's land is theirs for the taking. How far has this gone? It has gone too far. We are involved in a debate now, we are talking about an individual in California. Let us talk about the little people in California and also in Oregon that have done nothing wrong. If somebody has done something wrong, let us get some legislation to punish them, but let us not punish the other people involved in this process by masking it to the point of where we are going to take the land away from the little people because we have somebody big who may or may not have done something wrong. This bill contains commonsense language to protect the private property that the Government is asking to set aside for the marbled murrelet habitat.”