>I thought that not only did the witnesses do an excellent job, but >for a change, the committee asked some good questions and >seemed to "get it."
Yes, we were delighted at Peter's smack-down of the agencies for the total closure policy, and the horrendous ratio of overhead to actual research. Madeleine Bordallo (D-Guam) was the chair of the hearing two years ago, remembered Peter from that, and said hello before the hearing. When the members went off to vote (Guam doesn't have a vote), she came over and chatted with the witnesses, as you can see in the slide-show. But her later questions homed in on the issues so well that I thought she'd been primed to do it. But no, she just pays attention and was reinforcing Peter's points. Good on her! >I think that it's finally dawning on the committee members that this >is not just about endangered species, but about the health and >agricultural structure of the country. Yes. They all exhibited much better understanding of the situation this time, and the focus on agriculture got their attention. Alas, there is no money to spread around anymore. Things like bats, bees, and trees will be the first to fall in the looming budget battle. Peter hopes the subcommittee will take the money already allocated to the FWS bureaucracy and give it to USGS for more real research. Alex -- Alex Sproul NSS 8086RL/FE NSS Webmaster www.caves.org
