mr. chairman , i appreciate the opportunity to stand here and speak about this particular substitute . 
as it was brought to the committee on rules last night , i noticed that it has been consistently called the `` bipartisan substitute. '' it does have eight cosponsors that are bipartisan . 
but i would note that the actual bill itself has 95 co-sponsors and it has four times as many democrats on the bill itself as the so-called `` bipartisan substitute. '' so i would like to speak a bit about the bipartisan bill that is actually before us as well . 
i have one of my good constituents , mr. child , who bought 500 acres of land and found an endangered species on it . 
the snail . 
the problem is not that the snail was on it . 
the problem is he also had 11 geese , and the federal government threatened to sue him at the rate of $ 50 , 000 for every snail the geese happened to consume . 
this meant that the federal government went in there and captured all 11 geese , forced them to vomit to find out how many snails were actually consumed by the geese . 
this gives us some idea why a small private property owner , as soon as he finds an endangered species , the goal is to get rid of the endangered species . 
and the problem is not the big guys . 
the problem is that 90 percent of the habitat for endangered species is on private property . 
our goal , if we are really serious about trying to preserve endangered species of all kinds , is to get control and cooperation with small private property owners . 
the main bill does that by providing a grant program for the cooperation , whereas the substitute eliminates that provision . 
it puts us backwards to the same old process of trying to threaten and intimidate , which does not work . 
that is why the recovery rate is so abysmally low with the endangered species act . 
in fact , it moves us somewhat backwards by weakening scientific standards and creating potential for more litigation . 
we have agencies like the u.s. fish and wildlife service which year after year is bankrupt by rampant litigation . 
this means they have little money and little funds left for actual recovery of species . 
what we need to do is to make sure that we are engaging the private property owners so that they assist and work in cooperation with the federal government . 
you can not do that by supporting both the substitute and the main bill . 
