mr. chairman , i want to thank my dear friend , the gentleman from west virginia ( mr. rahall ) xz4003310 , not only for his friendship , but for all the good things he has done on the matter of endangered species and other matters on nature and conservation of natural resources . 
i want to pay tribute to my friend , the chairman of the committee . 
he has behaved in all manners in this connection with this , as he always does , as a complete gentleman . 
i greatly regret that we were not able to conclude our negotiations in a way which enabled us to together support this legislation . 
but he has made an honest effort and i want him to know of my appreciation and respect . 
having said that , endangered species is a very important piece of legislation that has worked well . 
it has served the nation splendidly well . 
large numbers of species which would have been extinct are saved by the fact that this has been in place . 
and the government now has the tools and guidelines for its behavior . 
this is not new legislation . 
it passed in 1973 . 
the gentleman from alaska ( mr. young ) xz4004392 , the gentleman from michigan ( mr. conyers ) xz4000800 , the gentleman from wisconsin ( mr. obey ) xz4003000 , the gentleman from ohio ( mr. regula ) xz4003340 and the gentleman from new york ( mr. rangel ) xz4003330 all supported it . 
it passed by a heavy bipartisan vote in the house . 
it passed 92 to nothing in the senate . 
i would note that there are few real differences between the substitute which will be offered shortly and the legislation as it is before us . 
they are , however , noteworthy . 
i would note that the success of the act i do not believe would be furthered by the adoption of the manager 's amendment , but it would be by the substitute to be offered . 
i would note that there is reason to constantly review the legislative pronouncements of the congress and to see how it is working and what needs to be changed to make it work better and more fairly . 
i would note that it is working well and fairly . 
56 percent of the top prescription drugs in the world contain natural compounds from plants found in the wild , many of which come from endangered plants . 
we have saved large numbers of animals who might otherwise have been extinct . 
i would note that there are also economic benefits . 
in a sense , we do good by doing well . 
i would note that wildlife has created recreation for more than $ 108 billion in revenue and more than a million jobs in both the public and private sector at the local and national level . 
there are problems with this . 
science is the core of esa and should remain so . 
h.r. 3824 regrettably changes it so that scientific data do not work in the same fashion they do and it creates new layers of bureaucracy . 
it also creates impacts which are supposedly related to national security , which may be important in terms of the recovery plan but not in terms of whether the animal should be listed or the species should be listed . 
economics are treated in the same way . 
they become a part of the decisionmaking rather than in the creation of the recovery plan . 
it is unfortunate that the legislation allows threatened species to dwindle until they become endangered , making the problem of recovery still more difficult . 
we can and we should address the real needs of small farmers , landowners , ranchers and others ; and we can do this , i believe , without allowing unlimited claims upon the treasury . 
this would , i think , entail an intelligent review of this matter , something which the gentleman from california ( mr. pombo ) xz4003220 and i tried to do . 
i would note that the president has expressed concerns in his statement of the administrative policy on september 29 and he says , `` requirements related to species recovery agreements , new statutory deadlines , new conservation and programs for private property owners provide little discretion to federal agencies and could result in a significant budgetary impact. '' so if you want fiscally and financially responsible legislation , legislation which , in fact , protects the species , which is fair to all , which makes progress and which is close to the area of the legislation but which has broad citizen support , conservation support , and does move the process forward , i would urge my colleagues to support the substitute which will be offered by my colleagues , the gentleman from california ( mr. george miller ) xz4002780 , and the gentleman from new york ( mr. boehlert ) xz4000350 . 
this is the way to go . 
we can continue our efforts to try in good faith as has been done by both the distinguished gentleman from west virginia ( mr. rahall ) xz4003310 and the distinguished gentleman from california ( mr. pombo ) xz4003220 to achieve good legislation which will again address the concerns of all while at the same time protecting and conserving species which we have no right to remove from this world . 
