Political Quotes

“I thank the gentleman from North Carolina (Mr. Rouzer). I also want to thank my former committee chairman on the House Agriculture Committee, now the ranking member, Mr. Peterson, for his support of this bill, as well as Chairman Conaway of the House Agriculture Committee. Mr. Speaker, in the national forests, especially in areas where there have been bark beetle damage, the trees are starting to fall across the trails. I have talked to outfitters who are taking pack trips into the national forests. They are only in there for 2 or 3 days, and when they try to get out they have to chop their way out because so many trees have fallen across the trails, even while they are in the forest. So this maintenance backlog is getting bigger. Mr. Speaker, it makes such sense, practically speaking, when we have a huge budget deficit, to maximize the use of volunteers in the national forests to help maintain these trails. Now, they will be able to avail themselves of workers comp, and that is part of the reason that it has taken this bill such a long time to get to the floor. But it came out of the Agriculture Committee unanimously. It is one of the most bipartisan bills in this entire Congress. It has 86 cosponsors in the House and 23 in the Senate. I want to thank my colleague, the gentleman from Minnesota (Mr. Walz), who is a cosponsor of this bill, for his work. I am hoping he will tell the tale that he encountered this summer when he was hiking in the West.…”