Political Quotes

“Mr. Chairman, H.R. 4315 is simply a no-brainer. Its primary purpose is to require that ESA be available to the public. This is nothing but a commonsense reform in the application of a law that is subject to extensive bureaucratic manipulation. Some opponents wrongly assume that the American people don't need to see this data, but how can anyone argue against transparency in our Federal Government? Let me quickly list an example in my district. We have the Utah prairie dog, a species that was listed under the ESA in 1973. U.S. Fish and Wildlife says there needs to be at least 1,500 prairie dogs before they can be considered for delisting as recovered, but the Federal Government only counts those dogs living on Federal lands, about 442 of them. In 2013, there were almost 5,000 of these prairie dogs living on private land that went uncovered. Earlier this year, I introduced H.R. 4256, the Endangered Species Improvement Recovery Act, something which would help in this effort as well. H.R. 4315 is a commonsense approach, and I urge my colleagues to support it.”