mr. chairman , i would like to thank the chairman of the full committee , the gentleman from california ( mr. pombo ) xz4003220 . 
i rise in opposition to the substitute amendment and in support of the underlying bill . 
i would like to congratulate the gentleman from california ( mr. pombo ) xz4003220 on many , many years of hard work on this issue . 
i have to say , i am astonished to be here today . 
by my count , the number of democrats who voted for the underlying bill in committee was greater than the number of democrats who voted against it . 
the minority leader just told us that reasonable people can agree that the endangered species act can be improved . 
i think that is the fundamental starting place , and it is nice to be debating the substitute , because we are talking about a fundamentally defective process . 
on the other hand , the underlying bill is a good bill . 
the substitute has some great defects . 
in the first place , it raises the regulatory bar . 
it makes it more difficult . 
in the second place , the substitute does nothing to provide straightforward answers to property owners . 
in other words , the fundamental problems , which have caused such division in america , are not dealt with in the substitute bill . 
they do not provide compensation to a landowner . 
if you are a landowner and the town or the state or country builds a highway , the land gets condemned and you get paid for the land . 
we need to have some kind of a compensatory process , and we do not have that in the substitute bill . 
the substitute bill replaces the dysfunctional critical habitat concept with something far worse . 
they talk about lands necessary for recovery . 
what that is , i do not know that we can figure that out until we have done a lot of litigation and have been through a great deal of pain in america . 
the substitute removes the incentives and creates a voluntary program . 
and a landowner , after he volunteers , could get 70 percent of his costs back for participating in the program . 
it does not give him any grants or any contractual rights . 
it does not pay him for the cost . 
i urge support of the underlying bill and opposition to the substitute amendment . 
