I thank the gentleman, my colleague on the Rules Committee, for yielding the customary 30 minutes to me.
Mr. Speaker, for months, the Chamber's majority has been bringing recycled bills to the floor to stall and waste time, knowing full well these bills will not be signed into law.
The majority has introduced no budget. Our infrastructure is crumbling. Americans are in need of new bridges, new roads, new water systems, schools, housing, and much more.
It has been said that it costs an estimated $24 million to run the House of Representatives for a week, money basically wasted when we do bills like these.
As a matter of fact, I think if we were to add up all that money, we might even be able to do high-speed rail in the United States.
Wouldn't that be a new venture?
The majority has sidestepped addressing the high cost of a college education and the student loan debt crisis. They have put their heads in the sand concerning the threat of the Zika virus.
We have done nothing about the century-old water pipes crisscrossing the country, even in light of the tragedy in Flint. No wonder Americans are so disgusted and angry. Instead of focusing on what people are crying out for, we now bring up this whole package of bills that has no chance of advancing.
Today we have the Sportsmen's Heritage and Recreational Enhancement Act. It advances an anti-conservation agenda at odds with the decades of longstanding tradition benefiting our uniquely American landscapes, wildlife, and sporting community.
The SHARE Act cobbles together seven separate legislative proposals, along with six other titles. Now, that is some seamstress work. It is a grab bag that includes provisions that would undermine the Wilderness Act, the National Environmental Policy Act, and other essential conservation laws.
What's more, the SHARE Act would drive the extinction of domestic and international wildlife by adding language that would block the administration's efforts under the Endangered Species Act to stop ivory trafficking--it basically says that you can, if you go on a safari, bring back elephant tusks because they are not in any danger, despite what we all hear to the contrary--and to prevent the slaughter of American elephants, which is necessary to get those tusks.
The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service wouldn't be able to stop the illegal ivory trade, and the importation of polar bears would be made possible again.
But I think one of the worst things is it brings back the traps that captured so many of people's pets, small animals who died a very cruel and long death. Why in the world would we do that? What is sporting about catching an animal, sometimes a person, or a pet, in something from which they cannot extricate themselves, and to suffer and to die?
Let's be clear. This bill undermines bedrock conservation laws. It won't benefit the average hunter or angler. People going on safaris might get something more out of it, like elephant tusks, but it will destroy years of work done by animal protection advocates and conservationists. The delicate balance at work in our ecosystem's food chain is not to be trifled with, and we disrupt it at our own peril.
Aside from rolling back decades of work conserving our majestic natural resources, the bill is a distraction from what we should be doing.
May I remind my colleagues on the other side of the aisle of a piece of wisdom from Teddy Roosevelt, America's favorite outdoorsman and actually the person who is responsible for the wonderful national parks that we have.
He said, and I quote: ``We are prone to speak of the resources of this country as inexhaustible; this is not so.''
If he had this worry that we have today here, 100 years ago, I can only imagine what he would think of this state of affairs.
I urge a ``no'' vote on this rule and a ``no'' vote on the underlying legislation.
Mr. Speaker, if we defeat the previous question, I will offer an amendment to the rule to bring up a resolution that will require the majority to stop the partisan games and hold hearings on the President's budget proposal.
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Ms. SLAUGHTER. I yield back the balance of my time.
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Ms. SLAUGHTER. Of course.
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Ms. SLAUGHTER. That is very kind of the gentleman, but I continue to yield back the balance of my time.
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Ms. SLAUGHTER. Mr. Speaker, on that I demand the yeas and nays.
The yeas and nays were ordered.
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