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 )  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 )  , the gentleman from michigan ( mr. dingell )  , and the gentleman from california ( mr. george miller )  were the democrats ; and the gentleman from alaska ( mr. young )  and the gentleman from california ( mr. pombo )  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 .  