mr. speaker , i thank the gentleman for yielding me this time .  mr. speaker , i rise today in opposition to the rule and in strong opposition to what i consider a very bad bill .  this department of the interior appropriations bill as written is a direct assault against our nation 's environment , and it should be defeated .  i am particularly outraged that the bill completely zeros out the stateside grant program of the land and water conservation fund , a program that has been an enormous help to our local communities and the families who live in them .  the stateside land and water conservation fund has helped to preserve open space , slow urban sprawl , and give our children safe places to play .  it is a true partnership with federal grants requiring a full match from states and local communities .  it is a program that has worked , and it has worked well .  but this republican bill completely eliminates the program .  it zeros it out , walks away from our local communities .  the land and water conservation fund , lwcf , is based upon a simple concept : it takes revenues from offshore oil and gas drilling and invests them in our nation 's public land , letting states take the lead .  for 40 years this program has a proven track record and benefited from strong bipartisan support .  when congress decided to open the outercontinental shelf to oil drilling , we pledged to use some of its revenues for the public good .  with the goal of meeting the nation 's growing need for recreation sites , congress established the lwcf trust fund and agreed to reinvest an annual portion of ocs revenue into federal land acquisition and state-assistance development programs .  now even though lwcf takes in $ 900 million annually from oil and gas receipts , in recent years just a fraction of this funding has been used for its rightful purpose .  and today , the republican leadership has taken their pillaging a step further by completely eliminating the stateside program and using the money for something else .  this bill breaks our promise to the american people by not spending this funding the way we are supposed to .  in all , the stateside program has helped communities by funding 40 , 000 projects nationally , success stories that can be found in every state and in 98 percent of u.s. counties .  i urge my colleagues to ask their governors and their mayors and county commissioners if they want the stateside program to be eliminated .  if the answer is no , vote against this bill .  this cut is particularly harmful to our nation 's underserved areas .  in fact , in many low-income urban communities , the stateside grant program is responsible for virtually all parks .  this is about priorities , mr. speaker .  this bill demonstrates that for the republican leadership , tax breaks for the wealthy few are more precious than open space .  for this leadership , millionaires are more important than kids who need a safe place to play .  and for this leadership , lobbyists win and families lose .  we will hear the rhetoric from the other side claiming they did the best they could with what they had .  they will complain that the allocation given to the subcommittee just was not big enough .  they should save their crocodile tears because those same members voted for the budget that created those allocations .  they created this mess , and now the families of this country are paying the price .  i urge my colleagues to vote against this rule and reject this bad bill .  