mr. chairman , i yield myself the balance of my time . 
mr. chairman , psalms 104 , verses 25 , 30 : `` in wisdom you made them all , the earth is full of your creatures . 
there is the sea , vast and spacious , teeming with creatures beyond number , living things both large and small ... .. 
when you send your spirit , they are created and you renew the earth. '' such is the appropriate biblical quote , i say to my colleagues , that should guide our deliberations today on this particular legislation . 
species keep people alive . 
in the earlier comment , i stated that there are numerous members of this body , perhaps to the person , who could tell of horror stories involved with the administration of the current endangered species act . 
and while some of those stories are probably valid and have their good points , the current regime , as i also previously stated , has not been working . 
it has not been working because it has not been adequately funded nor administered by the current administration . 
funding is a problem . 
funding perhaps would have solved many of these horror stories to which members of this body refer . 
but this particular legislation , as we have heard throughout the debate on this general debate and we will hear more during the amendment process , is an expensive proposition . 
if we could not fund the regime that exists today that implements the esa , how , i ask , are we going to fund an even more expensive regime that is set up by the pending legislation ? 
a compensation program to property owners that truly is going to cause us to go further into deficit spending . 
the legislation would increase direct spending by requiring the secretary of the interior to pay aid to private landowners who are prohibited from using their property under certain circumstances . 
that means money , i say to my colleagues . 
that means appropriations from this body 's committee on appropriations , at a time when we are finding tremendous costs being imposed upon the taxpayers that was unexpected 2 or 3 months ago . 
at a time when we are already cutting bureau of reclamation projects , western water projects , indian programs , our national parks . 
indeed , there are some in this administration that would sell our national parks and other public lands in order to address our ever-mounting deficit . 
this legislation will only exacerbate our deficit problems . 
and as i have said and referred to in earlier responses , why should we care about critters ? 
those who criticize this act refer to the supporters of the act as being more concerned about critters than human beings . 
i will tell them why we should be concerned about critters , why we should care about the endangered species act . 
nowhere should that care be more evident than in the world of medicine . 
anytime we allow a species to go extinct , we lose enormous potential to understand and improve our world . 
nearly 50 percent of all our medical prescriptions , for example , dispensed annually in our country , are derived from nature or modified to mimic natural substances . 
yet we have only investigated about 2 percent of the more than 250 , 000 known plant species for their possible medical breakthroughs . 
the extinction of a single species may mean the loss of the next effective treatment for cancer , for aids , or for heart disease . 
mold fungus led to the development of penicillin over 50 years ago . 
mold fungus , it has saved countless lives in recent generations , and it continues to do so every day . 
morphine and codeine , both made from poppy plants , are among the most widely used medications in the world today . 
venoms from snakes have led to important medications , including an important drug to control blood pressure . 
even insects have their value in medicine . 
we now know that the genes that turn out to form a heart in a fruit fly are actually the same genes that form hearts in higher animals and people . 
again , quoting from the bible , from ecclesiastes : `` man 's fate is like that of the animals ; the same fate awaits them both : as one dies , so dies the other . 
all have the same breath. '' mr. chairman , at the appropriate time , i will be speaking on the manager 's amendment and i will also be speaking in support of the substitute amendment that will be offered . 
as i said in my opening comments , i introduced these negotiations in good faith with the gentleman from california ( mr. pombo ) xz4003220 , my chairman , because i thought there was not adequate funding to enforce the current endangered species law , and those negotiations were conducted in good faith , and we came quite close , and he will say probably that 90 percent of the current bill is a bill upon which i agree . 
but at the same time , in the manager 's amendment that will be coming up , there were changes made in literally the last minute that came very close to violating the good-faith negotiations that were ongoing on this legislation . 
i will speak to that at the proper time . 
but i will say at this point that this legislation needs to be defeated , the substitute that will be offered needs to be supported , and we need to look very seriously at how we can enforce better the endangered species laws on the books today rather than the overhaul that exists in the pending legislation , and i urge defeat of the legislation . 
mr. chairman , i yield back the balance of my time . 
