Political Quotes

“I come to the floor to speak against the budget resolution's containment of language that might direct our colleagues in the future to open up drilling in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge. I thank my colleague from Massachusetts for his leadership on this issue and for being on the Senate floor tonight to talk about how important it is that we continue to maintain this Wildlife Refuge as it exists. Our public lands have been under assault from this administration. It comes in all forms. It certainly comes in the form of trying to use the Antiquities Act in reverse and, basically, to say: You can open up public lands for drilling. This really caused a controversy in Utah with the Bears Ears National Monument. There are Tribes, sportsmen, fishermen, and hunters who value the public lands in this national monument and who don't want to see it turned over to companies or individuals who want to mine or drill for oil and gas to the detriment of the monument resources. Now the budget resolution will allow for a ``for sale'' sign on some of our public lands to give a tax break to millionaires. It is not that this is the only issue. As I said, there is the notion that the administration is taking our public lands and trying to turn them over to be developed, the notion that they are giving land to coal companies so they can harvest coal off of Federal lands and then not charging them a royalty rate which is compensatory and fair to the American public.…”