Political Quotes

“I yield myself the balance of my time. Mr. Chair, in closing, I would like to thank the co-chairs of the Congressional Sportsmen's Caucus, Mr. Wittman and Mr. Walz, for putting this together. I clearly resist the idea that our opposition comes from the radical left. The 37 million hunters and fishermen out there are not Democrats. They are not Republicans. They are both. They are not conservative or liberal. They represent all Americans. Representative McClintock and Chairman Bishop talked about the 928,000 acres, BLM and Forest Service, which are closed now. I very much respect that that seems like a big number and that perhaps there should be movement on that. I think the question is: Should those decisions be made by State and local land managers or moved to Washington, D.C., to the head of the Forest Service, to the head of BLM? I think it is weird that, in this body, we are talking about moving things to Washington for the decision to be made. In fact, in the hearing we had on Chairman Bishop's Land and Water Conservation Fund reauthorization, much of it was about moving the decisionmaking back to States and local governments. Perhaps there is a way to think about opening up these 928,000 acres with more input from State and local governments in the time to come. On ivory and trafficking, Representative Wittman and I had a good conversation about how we really don't want it to address heirlooms that have been in the family for generations.…”