Sean Duffy: “I want to thank Chairman Hastings for all of his work on this legislation. I am from Wisconsin. I have the central to…”

“I want to thank Chairman Hastings for all of his work on this legislation. I am from Wisconsin. I have the central to northern part of the State. In my part of the State--and for the State as a whole--we value our natural resources. We value our wildlife. We have people who love to hunt, fish, bike, ski, and hike. It is part of our culture and our community. We have many organizations that work hard to promote conservation. We have hunting groups, sportsmen groups, conservation organizations, State and local DNR organizations. Many of them have come together to protect the gray wolf population in Wisconsin, so much so that it has become healthy, and the gray wolf has been taken off and delisted from the Endangered Species Act. However, not all organizations come at this with a pure heart. We have some whose main purpose and priority is filing lawsuits and suing the government under the Endangered Species Act. It is these sue-and- settle tactics that don't advance the cause of preserving our environment, and they aren't good for the American taxpayer. What is more, many of these lawsuits are funded by way of Federal tax dollars to support the litigation, so in essence, we are spending tens of millions of dollars of hardworking Americans' tax dollars to sue ourselves. So I think it is important that we have transparency in government.…”