Political Quotes

“Mr. Chairman, I rise today in support of this amendment, which I have cosponsored, that would remove a rider from this bill that would seriously compromise the effectiveness of the landmark Endangered Species Act, which was signed into law almost 40 years ago in 1973. The extinction rider in this bill is a sweeping action that will prevent the Fish and Wildlife Service from spending any money on listing new plants and animals under the Endangered Species Act, designating critical habitat, or upgrading species from threatened to endangered. At the same time, the bill maintains funding for delisting species, creating an incomplete and lopsided endangered species policy. Mr. Chairman, my constituents in Bucks County, Pennsylvania, and the American people support the important mission of the ESA, and it's not hard to see why. Preserving animals and plants brings countless benefits to people, and a loss of a species can have dangerous and expensive consequences in the future. For example, the U.S. Geological Survey recently estimated that the loss of bats in North America would cost agricultural producers nearly $4 billion per year, including those in my district. We also never know which species of plants and animals may be important in developing lifesaving medicines in the future. But the ESA's primary success to date has been to prevent the extinction of hundreds of species, including the American alligator, grizzly bear, and gray wolf.…”