[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 158 (2012), Part 12]
[House]
[Page 16956]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




         ENDANGERED SPECIES ACT AND THE LESSER PRAIRIE CHICKEN

  (Mr. POMPEO asked and was given permission to address the House for 1 
minute.)
  Mr. POMPEO. Today, I rise to talk about a bird, the Lesser Prairie 
Chicken. Actually, it's not about the bird; it's about jobs. I happen 
to represent Cassoday, Kansas, the American capital of the Lesser 
Prairie Chicken.
  The Environmental Protection Agency and this administration are about 
to do great harm to the bird but, more importantly, present great risk 
to energy exploration all across America. They want to put the Lesser 
Prairie Chicken under the Endangered Species Act. The impact of this 
decision will be enormous on our burgeoning domestic energy industry. 
Millions of public acres could be closed to exploration, and a 
labyrinth of bureaucratic nightmares awaits any investor foolish enough 
to explore land that might be home to even one Lesser Prairie Chicken. 
The uncertainty that listing this bird would create will discourage 
investments where they are most needed in our country.
  It's time to find a practical, realistic solution to protect our 
environment and spur economic growth, but manipulating the Endangered 
Species Act and exploiting the Lesser Prairie Chicken is simply wrong.

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