[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 151 (2005), Part 16]
[House]
[Page 21488]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                     ENDANGERED SPECIES ACT REWRITE

  (Mr. EMANUEL asked and was given permission to address the House for 
1 minute and to revise and extend his remarks.)
  Mr. EMANUEL. Mr. Speaker, much of the gulf coast lies in ruins. Iraq 
is on the verge of a civil war. Government spending has spiraled out of 
control, leaving structural deficits as far as the eye can see; and we 
are in the midst of an energy crisis. With these and other challenges 
mounting, how does the Republican Congress respond? Of course, by 
gutting the Endangered Species Act.
  They are using this time of mounting crises as a way to smuggle their 
long-held ideological goods through customs, the policies they can 
never enact because of the public's opposition to them.
  This Congress sees an opportunity to reward their special interests 
by eliminating the backbone of our environmental laws. The Endangered 
Species Act needs reform and needs to be updated, but we should not 
throw the baby out with the bath water.
  To add insult to injury, while it guts the very successful 
environmental policies, the bill will actually cost more than the 
current Endangered Species Act. CBO estimates that the administration 
costs will more than double. So much for smaller government.
  Mr. Speaker, the American people want leadership, they want solutions 
to challenges confronting this Nation, not wholesale auction of 
everything we hold dear to the special interests.
  When the Speaker's gavel comes down, it is intended to open the 
people's House, not the auction house.

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