mr. chairman , i want to thank the gentleman from california for keeping this issue on the front burner . 
i have come to learn in my time in congress that people support reform , as long as it does not change anything , and that is what we find with the endangered species reform . 
i thought i was given a great honor when i first got here in the year 2001 . 
the gentleman from alaska ( mr. young ) xz4004392 of the committee on resources put me on the study group to talk about the endangered species act , to try and finally get it off the dime . 
the gentleman from west virginia ( mr. rahall ) xz4003310 , the gentleman from michigan ( mr. dingell ) xz4001100 , and the gentleman from california ( mr. george miller ) xz4002780 were the democrats ; and the gentleman from alaska ( mr. young ) xz4004392 and the gentleman from california ( mr. pombo ) xz4003220 and myself were the republicans , and , unfortunately , it took us literally 6 months to finally agree what time to meet and where . 
the difficulty with the endangered species act is it is failing endangered species . 
anytime you start getting t-shirts and bumper stickers and jokes about a law , you know you have got a problem . 
i brought along a shovel today because the biggest joke in montana is shoot , shovel , and shut up . 
the problem is there are those that want to protect species . 
they do not want them to become extinct . 
they want to do the right thing . 
but this congress many years ago created a disincentive to do the right thing , rather than an incentive ; and if you learn anything about public administration or government , when you create a disincentive , usually you are pretty successful . 
we are not saving the species we need to . 
we need to get off the dime . 
we need to finally solve this issue . 
everybody recognizes it is broke . 
we can no longer use the excuse that it is just not exactly what we want . 
it is time to end the joke of shoot , shovel , and shut up . 
i want to thank the gentleman from california for bringing this issue forward and finally getting off the dime and giving us an opportunity to vote for a reform package that truly does what we need to do , and that is save the species of this country . 
