40 



The Chairman. And I hope you understand that. Now, if you do 

 not want to change the law, say that. 



Mr. Miller. That is not the issue. 



The Chairman. That is the issue. That is all I want to do is 

 change the law. Now, if Fish and Wildlife does not want to change 

 the law, if they still want to have this tactic, fine. But I want to 

 change this law so that I do not have to come back before this 

 Committee again and again, as I said, for seven times now to hear 

 these same-type cases. There is no justification for this law when 

 an innocent person can be convicted by innuendo without fact be- 

 cause an agent says he is guilty. 



Mr. Miller. It is not innuendo. Every one of these people could 

 have exercised the rights that that young gentleman did. 



The Chairman. And you have to hire a lawyer. 



Mr. Miller. I am sorry; a lot of people in life have to hire law- 

 yers to protect their rights. 



The Chairman. And that is our trouble. 



Mr. Miller. That is not our trouble. 



The Chairman. It is. 



Mr. Miller. That is our system. That is the Constitution of the 

 United States. 



The Chairman. And it goes against the taxpayer. 



Mr. Miller. It does not go against the taxpayers. 



The Chairman. It does. 



Mr. Miller. It goes to the Constitution of the United States. 



The Chairman. We will be back. 



Mr. Miller. And banging the gavel will not change the Constitu- 

 tion. 



[Recess.] 



The Chairman. The Committee will come to order. 



I want to apologize to the witnesses for these delays. We will be 

 in and out. You will notice that we have not eaten lunch either. 



The third panel is Mr. Bob Streeter and Mr. Monty Halcomb and 

 Special Agent Joseph Oliveros, all with the Fish and Wildlife Serv- 

 ice. Welcome, gentlemen. And I understand that there is going to 

 be one testimony? 



Mr. Streeter. No, sir, Mr. Chairman. We were asked to split it 

 in two parts. I will begin the presentations, and then, with your 

 permission, I will call on Mr. Oliveros to discuss for the Dixie 

 County baiting incident. 



The Chairman. OK, Mr. Streeter, you are up. 



STATEMENT OF ROBERT STREETER, ASSISTANT DIRECTOR, 

 REFUGES AND WILDLIFE, U.S. FISH AND WILDLIFE SERVICE, 

 MONTY HALCOMB, ASSISTANT DIRECTOR, LAW ENFORCE- 

 MENT, U.S. FISH AND WILDLIFE SERVICE, SOUTHEAST RE- 

 GION, ATLANTA, GEORGIA 



Mr. Streeter. Thank you very much, Mr. Chairman. We appre- 

 ciate the opportunity, like all of the others, to be here at this hear- 

 ing, and we welcome this opportunity to provide our written com- 

 ments for the record. In the interests of time, I would like to high- 

 light four points relative to the Migratory Bird Treaty Act and the 

 baiting issue. 



