Kay Bailey Hutchison: “I certainly understand when people have legitimate disagreements over the rights of private property owners versus the…”

“I certainly understand when people have legitimate disagreements over the rights of private property owners versus the rights of animals and the concern that we have for protecting habitat. I do object to the characterization that this is somehow an inappropriate amendment. I do not think we can say that. We have had expedited procedures on the bill that would put the moratorium in place--a bill that was introduced in January, that had 29 signatures on the request for a hearing in late January, that was very much worked on and compromised to accommodate the concerns of people who were legitimately interested in this bill--until we finally got a hearing on March 7. We have not had a markup in committee. I think we can see from some of the concerns that have been raised that we may not be able to get this bill on the floor before April. I really do not think it is a fair thing to say that we have had expedited treatment of this bill. I think what is important is that we put some common sense into the implementation of the Endangered Species Act. Congress passed the bill. It has expired. In fact, we have not been able to reauthorize it because the concerns are so great and the disagreements are so large. So, we are going to take our time and we are going to reauthorize the bills, I hope, in a judicious way. The main thing we are going to have to do is put common sense into the equation.”