mr. chairman , i rise in strong support of the threatened and endangered species recovery act , h.r. 3824 .  i want to first of all commend the gentleman from california ( chairman pombo ) and the gentleman from california ( mr. cardoza )  for what is very commonsense , bipartisan legislation ; and i want to thank the chairman and his staff for all the long hours and the hard work they have put into this bill .  the latest figures i have show that my home state of tennessee has one of the highest numbers of listings on the endangered species list .  as my colleagues can imagine , this is a very big issue in my state .  i think everyone has read and heard horror stories about ridiculous rulings that have come out over the years , very unfair rulings , under the endangered species act .  the burden of compliance under present law is , by far , the hardest for the smallest of our landowners .  it is a simple fact that the existing law hits the hardest on the small- and medium-size farmers and ranchers and landowners , and these are the people least able to fight it .  the wealthiest people and the biggest corporations always seem to be able to get their way .  they have enough money , and compliance with the law is either a simple nuisance or just a small cost of doing business .  i think , and the fact is , that the way the present law is , it drives out a lot of the competition for the big guys by getting rid of some of the little guys .  i think that anyone who approaches this legislation with a truly open mind would call this a very moderate bill .  in fact , in almost any other country in the world , h.r. 3824 would be held as great environmental legislation .  the united states has made greater progress in regard to environmental protection than any other country in the world in the last 30 years .  yet there are some extremist groups that simply can not seem to admit we have made this progress .  right now , these groups are telling their members how terrible this legislation is .  however , if we look at their mailings , they always tell their members how bad things are , and i think it is probably more related to fund-raising and money than it is to actual concern about endangered species .  if people want to both protect endangered species and not force small farmers or small landowners off their land and force them to sell to big developers or big government , then this is balanced legislation that will accomplish these goals .  