mr. chairman , i yield myself the balance of my time . 
i want to conclude by saying i thank the gentleman from west virginia ( mr. rahall ) xz4003310 for his offering of working on this piece of legislation , and we do so in the spirit of cooperation . 
i also have to say , though , that in this chamber where we have seen lofty rhetoric for a number of years , i personally having witnessed it for 26 since i was first an intern here , i have frankly never seen the rhetoric not coincide with the reality more than in this case oftentimes . 
this bill does not eviscerate the endangered species act . 
this bill does several positive things . 
it establishes recovery plans based on biology . 
it establishes recovery habitat based on those recovery plans . 
it encourages landowners to cooperate with biologists in the fish and wildlife service . 
it lets landowners get answers to their biological questions , and it compensates landowners whose land is confiscated under the original endangered species act . 
i ask members for their `` aye '' vote . 
