On the recordMarch 20, 2010
Once again, the process here is that it is not about whether a program is popular or not. The Endangered Species Act has popularity within certain groups. Obviously, higher ed has popularity and elementary education has popularity. The issue here is, do we adequately review these particular programs to see where we are and what our priorities ought to be? And if we don't, we have a tendency of losing those in the morass of the rest of the body, the plethora of legislation, the plethora of organizations that we simply have. This does not technically sunset the program. It sunsets the authorization for the appropriations for the program; the program goes on until further action is taken by this particular body, but it is the sequence that we use to try and see should we redo, should we continue, should we at least reevaluate what we are supposed to be. When we don't do those kinds of reevaluations, we abrogate legislative responsibility, and we pass it on to an executive branch which sometimes, well, always, has somewhat of a checkered response in its oversight responsibilities in these particular areas. Madam Speaker, this is the right thing to do. It is one of the things that could easily turn a bill that is right now partisan into a bipartisan bill so we don't have to look back and say what we did we could have done so much better. I urge approval of the amendment. I yield back the balance of my time.
