mr. chairman , i yield myself 30 seconds .  mr. chairman , in response to the last colloquy that just took place between the two gentlemen from california in regard to emergency powers that would be granted the president to waive provisions of the endangered species act , i just wanted to respond that the endangered species act did not get in the way in any manner whatsoever of recovery efforts in response to hurricanes katrina and rita .  whatever provisions that were needed to be waived were waived under current law , without any additional authority being needed by the president .  so i just wanted to make that clear for the record that esa did not hamper any recovery efforts for any of the most recent hurricanes .  