From the Gerry Connolly website:
Release: Snakes on a Plane In Congress
Sep 14 2011
The House Oversight and Government Reform Committee has held 22 hearings attacking federal regulations, but not a single hearing on job creation, Congressman Gerry Connolly, a member of the committee, lamented today.Connolly said Wednesday’s hearing bordered on theater of the absurd when the majority brought in a snake breeder who urged Congress to repeal regulations associated with the Lacey Act of 1900, a law that controls the importation of dangerous and invasive plant and animal species.
The majority’s witness, David Barker of the Association of Reptile Breeders, argued for the elimination of an Interior Department rule that would ban the transportation across state lines of giant Burmese pythons and eight other dangerous snakes. “These pythons are the same snakes that are breeding rapidly, overrunning the Everglades, eating every animal in sight including large alligators, and establishing a permanent habitat in South Florida, according to the National Park Service,” Connolly said.
“I don’t think eliminating regulations promulgated under this 111-year-old law and allowing more dangerous and invasive species into the country will do anything to create jobs, but it will certainly wreak havoc on our national parks and on many of our native wildlife, plants, and crops,” Connolly said. “And that will have a negative impact on jobs and our environment.”
“If regulations and economic growth were inversely related, then sub-Saharan Africa would have the most productive economy on earth,” Connolly said in his committee statement.
“I think the majority is peddling a bit of snake oil here,” Connolly said. “But it has nothing to do with jobs.”
The Republicans are taking issue with the Department of Interior’s attempt to designate the Burmese Python and 8 other snake species as “injurious,” which would make it illegal or import them or transfer them across state lines. According to Politico:
Snakes alive! Giant pythons in the Everglades are the latest focal point in the Hill’s partisan squabble over federal regulations that House Republicans say are squeezing the nation’s job growth.
But in a report released Wednesday, Republicans on the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee denounced the proposed rule as part of the Obama administration’s “regulatory tsunami.” They said the snake ban could “devastate a small but thriving sector of the economy.”
Snake breeder and herpetologist David Barker testified at a committee hearing Wednesday that the rule would hurt the livelihoods of people like him.
“It threatens as many as a million law-abiding American citizens and their families with the penalty of a felony conviction for pursuing their livelihoods, for pursuing their hobby, or for simply moving with their pet to a new state,” Barker told the panel.
Give me a break! How many millions of people are out of a joke and these people sit around bantering over exotic snakes and listening to expert witnesses with pony tails plea to not regulate these suckers? Who is on this committee and how to we ensure they do not get re-elected?
Meanwhile the President flies around the country trying to see his the American Jobs Act and these obstructionists worry about their anacondas. Enough is enough.
Rachel Maddow found time to report this absurd waste of time: (time 00-5:45)
Visit msnbc.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy
Typical Government……absurdity on both sides. Glad they’re spending time playing with exotic snakes. But hey, they spent how much time on Baseball! And hey Connolly! Government doesn’t create jobs! Government creates misery! Try to get that into your “brain” through those beaver-teeth, boss!
@pokie, I can see the curse has been lifted.
Looks like they gave our flunky the really important committee assignment!
I will gladly trade him if you don’t want him!!!! You can have Frank Wolf and I will take Gerry.
or, you can be me, and not be sure who your next congressperson will be ;(
@Elena, you can have Frank and I will take pot luck. I have had him long enough. I grow weary. What is important to him is not important to me and vice versa.
Why on earth are these fly-boys messing with snakes rather than working on jobs solutions. Snakes don’t create jobs. Lots of people have been injured because people think its ok to own exotic pets. Then they get lose or worse, they get turned lose because no one wants to take care of a 6 foot python.
Sounds like the right swap, doesn’t it?
Yea it really does. So when does all of this get fixed? Are you without a congressman?
Know why there’s a overabundance of snakes in the Everglades?
Because there is a shortage of Cajuns…..
If Chef Prudomme invented a recipe for Python, the problem would be solved overnight.
Is that Louisiana humor, Cargo? You might have to explain that one a little.
Obama has already lost three million private sector jobs, and the number is still rising. Given that record, a snake debate in Congress is not so bad. It distracts them from doing any more damage to the economy.
Kelly, why do you say Obama lost the jobs? You think economic crash had anything to do with that? How many more would there be without TARP, Stimulus, and other iniatives? Do you think the same thing would have happened under McCain?
I think we should all be glad that it hasn’t been worse. I remember hearing stories from the Depression from the old folks when I was a kid. They weren’t even that old. Parents and grandparent aged people could tell some real horror stories, especially my non-southern relatives. Somehow those in VA fared a little better.
The guy is a snake breeder and has a business. (Not that I agree with that business. Try being chased around your own house by a Black Mamba, and you wouldn’t care much for such businesses either!)
However, this does raise another point. He is an American just like the rest of us. He has the constitutional right to seek redress from his own government. He was allowed to do that. He was permitted to make a plea before the decision makers in his own elected government. Is that so bad? It doesn’t necessarily mean that things will ultimately go his way; but I don’t think we want to limit the ability to seek redress based on whether or not WE think good or ill of a particular type of legal business?
As for the so-called jobs bill, I suspect there may be somewhat of a self-imposed betwixt and between here. We have this jobs bill and a recognized need to find a way pay for it without jacking up the deficit and debt even more. At the same time, we have this joint Committee of Twelve trying to thrash out possible debt reduction. A lot of balls in the air at the same time. Might be tough.
@Wolverine, welcome back.
We are talking about a mighty small industry here compared to other jobs. I believe the guy was called as an expert witness. I have no sympathy for people who want to buy exotic pets and then turn them loose. At what point does this become a pest issue?
I don’t think this guy gets to jump in front of everyone else. So make special exceptions for movies and such. Otherwise, lets let the black mambas live in the wild…their own wild and not mine.
Too bad the Super Committee, when looking at cost reductions for savings, doesn’t look to have a lot of these nonsense sessions eliminated. Factoring in costs to run one of those per hour, can probably knock down two or three grand per hour spent discussing something that could be done a lot cheaper down at the little agency level.
Ahem — That’s a problem with Black Mambas. Sometimes they decide that YOUR house is part of THEIR wild.
I agree fully on the exotic critter issue. I’m not in this guy’s corner except to say that the has his rights. Otherwise, I’m all for stopping this infernal trade. Hah, wasn’t too long ago that some guy’s pet boa got loose in our neighborhood. Mrs. Wolverine, who is used to African critters, was fit to be tied. She had just read a story about somebody who was about to sit on the toilet when they saw a boa curled up at the bottom of the bowl. The thing had crawled up the drain. Now, if that doesn’t scare the crap out of you literally, I don’t know what will!!
I am on Mrs. Wolverine’s side on this one! I also get irritated when people think it is so cool to get little Joey a pet whatever that grows into something way too large to be accommodated in the family bathtub.
I don’t know much about black Mambas but I am afraid if they wanted the house, I might cave in.
If government can’t create jobs then it can’t destroy jobs either.
@Moon-howler
Sure the crash had something to do with it, but the economy has had almost three years to respond. Effective management would have created a business environment in which the economy should have turned around by now. Onerous regulation and high taxes have created an uncertain business environment.
For example, remember the case in which the Obama administration threw up roadblocks for Boeing to open a new plant in South Carolina? Rather than let the company do what was in its best interest, the administration tried to force the company to expand in Washington state to protect union jobs.
Or have you noticed that new offshore oil drilling permits still are not being allowed? Allowing drilling would created private sector jobs and perhaps increase the oil supply to reduce costs for a slew of businesses.
The current administration seems to be hostile to the business community, which has responded by avoiding risk, minimizing job creation, and moving more jobs overseas. And no, I do not think TARP and the stimulus did all that much. The stimulus paid for a few teachers to be retained, but now that the program is over, local governments are still short on cash and may still have to lay off teachers.
Repeating here….taxes are less now than they have been in years. Financial market crashes always take a long time. Most economists warned us things would not turn around over night. I guess there was a lot of cherry picking over who we would believe.
My main criticism of Obama is that he didn’t take a page out of FDR’s book and address the nation with more reassurance weekly. I think things would turn around faster if people listened to a lot of reassurance and less doom and gloom that one hears on TV and sees on the internet. There is a great deal to be said for self=fulfilling prophecy.
I have never felt this administration was hostile at all to business in general. I would not want to see what would have happened without TARP. I think we would be in a full=blown depression without it.
Stimulus paid for a lot more than teachers. It just didn’t go far enough. And if there are teachers being paid with stimulus, then jurisdictions can handle the business at hand without being strapped so tightly for school budgets. If there weren’t enough teachers, you would have classrooms of 40 kids a piece. Talk about the lost decade.
Are you saying that government regulation never has any impact on business practices, including hiring? Interesting.
I’m saying that government can and does create jobs contrary to what the tea party people say.
It sure does, BS. Need your road plowed? Need a defense contractor? Bowes Allen and Ratheon don’t exist in a vacuum. Need to open a new school? Need a police force?
What is the tea party thinking?