Rob Bishop: “I rise to support Mr. Dicks' idea but not the process he is using to get there. It is one of the amazing things as you…”

“I rise to support Mr. Dicks' idea but not the process he is using to get there. It is one of the amazing things as you look about the debate on this particular amendment. It's like ships passing in the night--getting close but never actually touching because everyone who has spoken so far is saying the same thing: that we want to have an Endangered Species Act that works. This needs to be fixed or amended and changed in some way to make it work better, to involve the entire process so that everyone is working towards the same goal; but for some reason, it flat out is not happening, and it's not happening because we have violated the process. Everyone has said this is not the right place to try and fix the Endangered Species Act. That's also true, but it's the only process that's allowed because we have violated our own intent. Appropriators are supposed to appropriate funds to programs. Authorizers are supposed to create the programs and then every so often reauthorize those programs to make changes based on the need or to make sure that we are moving in the proper direction. Let me introduce you, or at least remind you, of John Gochnauer--one of my favorite baseball players at the turn of the century with the Cleveland Indians. He was good enough to play regular shortstop for Cleveland, although the first year he played he committed 48 errors, and his batting average was 187.…”