Mr. Chairman, let me first say that I appreciate all the hard work that the gentleman and his committee have done on this measure. As the chairman knows, the recent listings of the nine salmon and steelhead runs in the Pacific Northwest as…

I rise in support of this open rule and the underlying legislation because this legislation provides some long overdue reforms to address the burden of federally mandated paperwork. As a former small businessman before I got into this…

I am in favor of the articles of impeachment. I ran for Congress in order to pass laws--not to pass judgment. But events have transpired over the past year that have put me in a position to decide whether President Clinton lied under oath…

I rise in support of S. 1134, a bill granting the consent and approval of Congress to an interstate forest fire protection compact entered into by the states of Alaska, Idaho, Montana, Oregon and Washington, as well as the Provinces of…

I have to say, I agreed with a vast majority of what he said, which I think is a compliment to him. There are some things I disagreed on. But there was one thing that came to my mind about Jerry Solomon and that is this: He is very, very…

I strongly support S. 1683, which adjusts the boundaries of the Lake Chelan National Recreation Area and the Wenatchee National Forest. This is a non-controversial measure that is supported by both the U.S. Forest Service and the National…

Right now, the wheat producers of Washington State are facing wheat prices that are below the cost of production. This means that they can either choose to sell for a loss or store their wheat in hopes that prices will return to a higher…

During a June 10 hearing in the Committee on Resources, witnesses from the National Park Service testified that the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers is not properly complying with the implementing regulations of the Native American Graves…

Mr. Speaker, this rule is a fair and balanced attempt to bring to the floor an issue that is front and center in every American's mind. The rule provides for a closed rule, which is typical on tax issues. The rule further provides that the…

I strongly share their concerns about the lack of relief from the burdensome Community Reinvestment Act. Let me share a few statistics. The CRA, first passed in 1977, took only two pages of bill language when first authored by former…

This amendment cosponsored by the gentleman from California [Mr. Cox] and the gentleman from Ohio [Mr. Hall] is intended to be a substitute for the Cox amendment published in the Congressional Record on July 15, 1997. It is a compromise…

The primary function of the Committee on Rules is to manage bills on the House floor. In doing that, of course we did have a Committee on Rules when the Republicans were in the minority, and that was run by the Democratic Party. In fact…

this is a commonsense approach to a small problem, frankly, that deals with 640 acres in the Wenatchee National Forest, where an individual wants to exchange it to potentially put this into development; but he cannot exchange it unless…

H.R. 408, the International Dolphin Conservation Program Act, essentially codifies an international agreement between 12 nations known as the Declaration of Panama. Were the House to make any significant changes to H.R. 408, this historic…

Mr. Chairman, this bill is a result of settlement negotiations between the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation and the Oroville-Tonasket irrigation district, which is located in my district in central Washington. As explained by my colleague from…

let us take a look at the facts. This is a very narrowly drawn claim settlement bill. There is no net market value to this project. For example, the CBO in their scoring of this, weighed what the district owed versus what the Federal…

I rise in support of H.R. 4236, the omnibus parks bill. This bipartisan legislation will improve the lives of thousands of Americans. I am particularly interested in this legislation because it includes a provision, the Hanford Reach…

I want him to know, however, that the House and Senate have accepted legislation dealing with this from a structural standpoint. Those issues are in committee right now and should be resolved in the authorization bill. I also appreciate…

the purpose of H.R. 3068, authored by the gentleman from Minnesota [Mr. Gutknecht], is to accept the request of the Prairie Island Indian Community to revoke their charter of incorporation issued under the Indian Reorganization Act. The…

That is right. If we look at what the intention of the act was 23 years ago, and you voted for it because the intention was good, that action by this farmer would do nothing at all to enhance the species. It is counter to what we are…

One local farmer made a very profound statement. I think it is indicative of probably all of us across the West that have private property, where the treat would come by having an endangered species found on our private property. This…

I want to talk about it from a macro standpoint, because it has a huge impact beyond what we talked about. For example, the power in the Northwest comes from falling water. About 90 percent of our power comes from water over dams. Whenever…

former Senator John Sharp Williams, an admirer of Thomas Jefferson, once noted that: "My reading of history convinces me that most bad government has grown out of too much government." This is exactly the problem that we are attempting to…