Providing for Consideration of H.R. 1018, Restore our American Mustangs Act
PROVIDING FOR CONSIDERATION OF H.R. 1018, RESTORE OUR AMERICAN MUSTANGS ACT -- (House of Representatives - July 17, 2009)
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Mr. McGOVERN. Madam Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume.
Madam Speaker, House Resolution 653 provides for consideration of H.R. 1018, the Restore Our American Mustangs Act, under a structured rule. The rule provides 1 hour of general debate equally divided and controlled by the chairman and ranking minority member of the Committee on Natural Resources.
The rule makes in order a manager's amendment and a substitute amendment from the ranking member, my former Rules colleague, Mr. Hastings of Washington. The manager's amendment is debatable for 10 minutes, and the substitute is debatable for 30 minutes. The rule also provides one motion to recommit, with or without instructions.
Madam Speaker, H.R. 1018 is a bill that restores important protections for wild horses and burros. The bill received full consideration in the subcommittee and the full committee. Markups were held. Republican and Democratic amendments were offered and accepted through the regular order.
Madam Speaker, this bill will reverse a misguided and controversial rider that was adopted as part of the fiscal year 2005 omnibus appropriations bill. The provision was slipped into the bill in the dead of night when the Republicans were in control, reversing long-standing Federal policy that protected wild horses from being sold at auctions and subsequently shipped to slaughter plants. Last summer, the Bureau of Land Management announced that it would consider killing as many as 30,000 healthy wild horses and burros in BLM holding centers across the United States.
The ROAM Act, H.R. 1018, introduced by Chairman Rahall, will restore long-standing protections by prohibiting the sale and wholesale killing of wild horses and burros; prioritize cost effective on-the-range management, over-roundups, saving millions of tax dollars; facilitate the creation of sanctuaries for wild horses and burro populations on public lands; strengthen the BLM's wild horse and burro adoption program; and protect wildlife by requiring a thriving natural ecological balance on the range.
Madam Speaker, these wild animals are rounded up in huge numbers by BLM only to languish in holding pens, threatened with sale or slaughter. H.R. 1018 will minimize these stressful, inhumane roundups, and promote adoption for those horses and burros who are taken off the range, banning the sale of wild horses and burros by the BLM, as well as the transfer of these animals for the purpose of processing into commercial products.
Legislation similar to H.R. 1018 passed the House in 2007 by a landslide, bipartisan vote of 277-137. Unfortunately, this measure has never been signed into law. It is time we end this inhumane practice once and for all.
This bill is important for the protection of our Nation's wild horses and burros. I urge adoption of the rule and the bill.
I reserve the balance of my time.
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Mr. McGOVERN. Madam Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume.
Just in brief response to the gentlewoman's comments, as she knows, when the manager's bill is adopted, this bill will have no cost.
And in response to her question about what the Democratic priorities are, they are to create jobs, they are to pass an energy bill to create more jobs, and to deal with climate change. Our priorities include passing a health care bill that will lower the cost of health care for average Americans.
I don't know about in North Carolina, but I can tell you that in my district and everywhere I go around the country, people claim with great justification that they are paying too much for health care. She may represent a bunch of millionaires, but I think most of us don't.
The fact of the matter is health care costs are too high. We need to make it more affordable for the average family, for small businesses, and so that's what our priorities are.
I should say to the gen tle lady as well that according to recovery.gov, in her State, jobs that were created or saved in North Carolina are 105,000 jobs.
I also submit into the Record, Madam Speaker, an editorial from the Knox News in support of this stimulus package as it relates to the Great Smoky Mountains National Park, which includes, I understand, part of the gentlewoman's district.
[From the Knox News, Thursday, July 16, 2009]
Editorial: Smokies Stimulus: Let the Good Work Begin
It isn't exactly a birthday present, but no matter. The Great Smoky Mountains National Park can use the infusion of $64 million in stimulus money for a variety of projects that have been needed in the park for years.
It's special that it will come in time to help those in East Tennessee and Western North Carolina celebrate the park's 75th anniversary. And it is significant that it is about eight times the amount the park usually receives for maintenance work.
The stimulus funding is expected to create up to 1,500 jobs inside and outside the park.
The money comes from the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act, and the park officials hope to be able to award the first round of construction contracts by late next month, with work expected to begin after the Sept. 7 Labor Day holiday.
The Smokies Park is one of 380 national parks to receive funding from the stimulus package. And, as the most visited national park in the country, its share of the federal funding was greater than that for other parks.
For example, Yosemite National Park received $4.5 million and the Grand Canyon National Park received $10.8 million. Denali National Park in Alaska will get $6.3 million.
The initial phase of construction will use $7.5 million of the stimulus money to repave Cosby Campground, improve parking at the Sinks waterfalls area and upgrade 34 buildings and five comfort stations throughout the park.
The park already is using $1.2 million of the federal money to hire temporary workers who will improve 32 miles of eroded horse trails in Tennessee and North Carolina and to restore more than 60 historic cemeteries.
During the first phase of construction, the Cosby campground will close for the season after the Labor Day holiday. It normally operates through October. The campground is scheduled to reopen as usual in March.
The work on the parking area at the Sinks will cause that site to close following Labor Day, with completion scheduled for May 2010.
The project also will include a handicapped accessible masonry platform overlooking the waterfalls.
A second phase of contracts funded by the stimulus money is expected to be awarded later in the fall; work on these projects will begin in the spring.
Park spokesman Bob Miller said in May that it was a coincidence that the stimulus money comes during the yearlong celebration of the Smokies' 75th anniversary. However, he added, ``The park was created in large measure as an economic stimulus initiative, so it's timely that we're making such a substantial investment in our infrastructure.''
We hope those in the federal government, regardless of the impact of the stimulus money, realizes what those in this area have long understood. The Smokies Park is a national treasure--everyone's treasure--and its continued upkeep and improvement need to stay high on the government's to-do list.
So our priorities are pretty clear, and what we're trying to do right now is dig ourselves out of a ditch that her party and the Republican President George Bush dug our economy into. It turns out the ditch is much deeper than anybody had thought, and it's going to take us a little time to get out of it.
But through the stimulus package, through passing health care reform to lower health care costs on families and small businesses, through a climate change bill to create thousands and thousands of more green jobs, I think we've got to turn the corner, and I think that the President of the United States is leading us on the right track.
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Mr. McGOVERN. I yield myself such time as I may consume.
Madam Speaker, I just want to say to my colleague that I appreciate his comments, especially after our previous conversation.
He is complaining about the process, but if I'm understanding this correctly, the Resources Committee held a hearing on this bill. There was a full committee markup. The gentleman offered a similar amendment, I understand, that was rejected.
He sent an amendment up to the Rules Committee, which he did not testify on behalf of, which he is not required to. But if it was so important, I would have thought that he would have been up before the committee. And I would also say to my colleague that, to the best of my understanding, none of his Republican colleagues on the Rules Committee offered his amendment.
So I would just suggest in the future, if there is an important issue like that, that there be some more groundwork in advance to it.
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Mr. McGOVERN. Madam Speaker, I yield myself as much time as I may consume.
That was an interesting exchange. Unfortunately it didn't represent or reflect reality. The fact of the matter is, Madam Speaker, when Bill Clinton left the White House, he left George Bush with an enormous surplus. George Bush took that surplus and frittered it away on wars that were not paid for and $1.6 trillion in tax cuts that drove us deeper into debt. The economy spiraled down. My friends on the other side basically turned their backs on what was happening to average people all across this country. And in November of 2008 the American people spoke; and what they made clear is this: That my friends on the other side of the aisle, my Republican friends, do not know best. At every level of government, they were rejected, they were turned out of office because people were sick and tired of their policies that, they believed, drove this economy into a deep ditch. What people want are answers. They don't want the same old, same old. They don't want more tax cuts for the rich. They don't want more indifference toward middle-class working families or total indifference toward those who are struggling in poverty. They want us to try to fix this economy.
My friends take delight in trying to poke holes in the policies of President Obama, saying, Well, you know, he promised that we would create X amount of jobs. We are falling short of that. Well, it turns out that this ditch that they dug is deeper than many of us thought. But by most standards, most economists are actually seeing that things are beginning to turn--maybe slower than we would like, but they are beginning to turn. We need to continue these policies. We need to help working families in this country. We need to fix health care. We need to lower costs for families. People are paying too much for health care in this country. They're tired of the past Congresses that were more interested in pleasing insurance companies than they were in helping average families. They want us to deal with global climate change and to try to help pave the way for new jobs in the area of green technologies. So we're going to move forward.
I should also tell my friends, and as they know, that as we debate this bill, there are committees meeting, there are briefings going on on a whole number of issues from health care to the economic recovery. I'm sorry that they don't want to stay around and do that work, but that's what they were elected to do. We're going to stay here, and we're going to do the people's work until it is done.
With that, Madam Speaker, I reserve the balance of my time.
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Mr. McGOVERN. Madam Speaker, before I yield to the gentleman from West Virginia, I would just like to point out to the gen tle lady from North Carolina, who has been a constant critic of the stimulus package, that some $8 billion of that total is earmarked specifically for North Carolina. Some of the money that has already been spent, Madam Speaker, and has been used to be able to prevent the firing of teachers. Without receiving that money, States and communities would end up firing hundreds and hundreds of teachers, which would mean that class sizes would increase and in some cases even double, denying our kids the kind of quality education that we want them to have. Some of that money went to help shore up our law enforcement, our police officers, our firefighters. So to the best of my knowledge, the people of North Carolina haven't said, Don't give us the relief. Don't give us the aid. We need help because, quite frankly, this economy is in such bad shape--and I will repeat--because of the policies of the Republican administration that held the White House for 8 years, that basically turned its back on average working people in this country. We are trying to fix the mess that they created, and we're going to do that.
I would now like to yield 5 minutes to the chairman of the Natural Resources Committee, the gentleman from West Virginia (Mr. Rahall).
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Mr. McGOVERN. Madam Speaker, I find it ironic that my friends on the other side of the aisle want to talk about fiscal responsibility and they are worried about the deficit. Where were they for 8 years when George Bush took this economy and drove it straight into a ditch? He inherited a surplus from President Clinton, and he squandered it. And nobody, virtually nobody, on the other side of the aisle spoke about the fact that Republican economic policies are responsible for this economic crisis. This President inherited the worst economy since the Great Depression. We need to dig ourselves out of this ditch. And we are going to do that.
I reserve the balance of my time.
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Mr. McGOVERN. If anyone on the other side of the aisle wants to defend the same-old-same-old policies of George Bush, then go ahead and do it. But the fact of the matter is that in November, 2008, the American people spoke overwhelmingly against and rejected those policies. The economic policies of the Republican Party and of George Bush drove this country into a ditch, and we are trying to dig ourselves out of it.
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Mr. McGOVERN. Madam Speaker, we are here today because we are doing the work of the American people. And we are doing what the American people asked us to do.
As we debate this bill on the floor, there are major markups in the Education and Labor Committee and the Energy and Commerce Committee on health care. There are also hearings and markups going on on two major appropriations bills. So there is a lot of work going on here, a lot of important work, of trying to dig ourselves out of this mess that this President inherited.
It is interesting, again, to hear my friends on the other side of the aisle talk about fiscal management and about the need to control deficits and debts when they voted for tax cuts for rich people that weren't off-set. They voted for wars that weren't paid for. And there was silence. And the economy got worse and worse and worse. On November 2008, the American people said, enough, we need to change course.
The American people want us to deal with health care. The Party of No says, no, can't do health care. They are trying to scare people, again, away from a national health care reform bill that will control and lower the cost of health care for average Americans.
People want us to deal with the issue of climate change and creating green jobs. And the Party of No says, no, we can't do that. They don't want us to deal with that issue. No, no, no, no.
Well, the reality is the American people want us to deal with the issues of law enforcement, with the issues of immigration and with a whole number of issues. And the Party of No says no. They vote against everything. They are against everything. So here we are. We are dealing with this issue today.
I think this is a commonsense bill. The chairman of the Resources Committee explained that there was a hearing and there was a markup at full committee. I would urge my colleagues to vote ``yes'' on the previous question and ``yes'' on the rule.
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