mr. chairman , i thank the gentleman for yielding me this time and for his tremendous work on this legislation . 
i applaud my colleagues here today for offering this amendment in the nature of a substitute . 
it goes a long way in making meaningful reforms to the endangered species act without hollowing the fundamental goals of america 's flagship wildlife conservation efforts . 
while there have been successes in species recovery since enactment of the 32-year-old endangered species act , most would agree that it is in need of real reform to make it more effective in species recovery , less demanding on some landowners , and less prone to lawsuits and bureaucracy . 
however , pushing the problematic and prohibitively expensive h.r. 3824 , the threatened and endangered species recovery act through the legislative process has left a sour taste in many of our mouths because it removes the enforceable protections for species recovery and creates the entitlement program for private landowners . 
at a time when our country is still coping with the cost of the wars in iraq and afghanistan , and most recently with hurricanes katrina and rita , one has to wonder why a rewrite of the endangered species act that includes an entitlement program is even a consideration . 
this substitute will improve the recovery of more species , put back into place needed enforcement of species recovery plans , and it will do all of this and much more without creating an entitlement program . 
this bipartisan substitute is a more pragmatic solution , and i urge my colleagues on both sides of the aisle to support it . 
