mr. chairman , i thank the gentleman for yielding me this time , and i rise in opposition to the threatening endangered species from recovering act . 
this legislation , as many of us know , will do nothing to improve our ability to help species recover . 
as a matter of fact , this legislation will repeal all endangered species act provisions that protect threatened and endangered plants and wildlife from the harmful impact of pesticides . 
let us focus on this for a moment . 
every schoolchild in america is aware that pesticides are threatening to birds . 
our own national symbol , the bald eagle , is threatened with the provisions of this bill that would repeal the pesticides provisions that currently exist and which help protect endangered species . 
we would not spray pesticides on a bald eagle , would we ? 
and if we would not do that , why would we vote for this bill ? 
pesticides have played a large part in the decline of many species , including the bald eagle . 
the bald eagle is the symbol of our national unity . 
there is something about the endangered species act which represents something even greater than talking about plants and wildlife . 
there is a recognition that plants and wildlife and human beings are all part of the same interconnected process ; that we are interdependent ; that we are all one . 
to act as though plants and wildlife and insects are just here for our use , for our commercialization , for our disposal actually rejects our own humanity . 
there are deeper questions here about who we are as human beings that are reflected in legislation like this . 
i could talk for a while about how this bill is going to provide giveaways to developers at the expense of wildlife and endangered species . 
i could talk about how it is going to require the government to use taxpayer dollars to pay big developers to not violate the endangered species act . 
i could talk about how this threatening endangered species from recovery act would call for a tentative schedule for developing recovery plans for species that are currently protected . 
i could talk about all that , but i want to stress that what we are really doing here in voting for this bill is rejecting the whole idea of interdependence and interconnection ; rejecting the idea of a bald eagle which stands for national unity and that we are all together . 
