Political Quotes

“Madam Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume. Madam Speaker, one quick point is that these national wildlife refuges are U.S. public lands paid for by U.S. taxpayers and should be managed for the benefit of all. So let me quote former Fish and Wildlife Service Director Dan Ashe, recently departed, who said these ``are not game farms managed for a slice of their diversity for the benefit of a few people who would call themselves hunters.'' Much has been made in this debate this afternoon, Madam Speaker, about whether ANILCA prohibits this Fish and Wildlife rule. We have gone back and forth with different cases. Let me just quote a few key paragraphs. Section 302 and 303 of ANILCA establishes 16 national wildlife refuges, and for each one, the purpose is stated for which the refuge is to be established and shall be managed, including: ``to conserve fish and wildlife populations in their natural diversity.'' The law doesn't say wildlife should be managed in some alternate state of unnatural diversity where no wolves, no bears, and overpopulated moose herds can destroy the landscape. Both the ANILCA, and the Improvement Act, the 1998 law that reorganized the National Wildlife Refuge System, managed Alaska's Federal refuge managers to conserve natural diversity, a value that the Fish and Wildlife Services correctly noted is incompatible with indiscriminate predator culls.…”