Mark Neumann: “Mr. Chairman, our Nation stands $4.8 trillion in debt. We will overdraw our national checkbook this year alone by over…”

“Mr. Chairman, our Nation stands $4.8 trillion in debt. We will overdraw our national checkbook this year alone by over $200 billion. Our children and our grandchildren are counting on us to stop spending money that we do not have. We must start prioritizing our spending habits. This amendment would cancel the expenditure of $800,000 of taxpayer money to be spent on elephants, tigers, and rhinoceroses. I care about wildlife and I sure do not want to see elephants, tigers, or the rhinos become extinct. The Neumann-Stenholm amendment would not mean that elephants, tigers, or rhinos would become extinct. In fact, the African elephant fund has collected over $4.5 million since 1991 in private contributions. The taxpayers of the United States have added $3.7 million since that time. This amendment simply turns off the use of Federal tax dollars for this purpose. These programs and activities are properly left for private foundations, not to be paid for by the U.S. taxpayers.”