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Mr . CRAIG . Mr . Chairman , and I will close , I think it is important to understand that there are thousands and thousands of Ameri cans who ride these vehicles daily in a safe way . And just in the last week , as this hearing came to my attention and I became con cerned on the information that was more importantly , was not going to be made available , it also came to the attention of the American public that I would be involved . And in that brief period of time we have well received over 1 , 000 letters , mailgrams , tele grams , and statements from riders across this country of their fear that our Federal Government will try to ban this vehicle and the opportunity it provides not only for recreation , but for safety and as a useful tool of those who employ it in their business .

Thank you . Mr . BARNARD . Well , first of all , I cannot help but respond to the fact that I don ' t have to today defend the integrity of this commit tee . This committee has been in operation for 4 years under my di rection . We have never had one instance where we have been iden tified as being unfair , and I can assure you that anybody that wants to test ify in this matter can have an opportunity . We will prolong these hearings as long as you want to ; we will give you every opportunity to bring in every witness in this country if you want to , and I will hold them open .

I think we have a responsibility in this committee . We have an oversight responsibility for the Consumer Product Safety Commis sion , and we have every right to be here this morning when 161 deaths have occurred in this country . I don ' t compare those to any thing or anybody else . I think that is important . If it hadn ' t been but one death and there is the possibility that there is some engi neering defect in this equipment , then we have a right to look at it .

And I don ' t have to defend the right and the responsibility of this committee , and certainly I take the time to say at this time that we are not structuring this hearing in any other way than we have before , or in any other way that any other committee has . First of all , you establish the need . And we are doing t

we are doing that this morning by hearing from these folks who have had an actual acci dent in their own experience or in their family . We are then look ing to the medical panel to see what they have got to say . Then we are going to look at an engineering panel , and we can expand that as time goes on . Then we are going to hear from the Consumer Product Safety Commission . And finally , we will hear from the manufacturers .

Now , if that is not giving the manufacturers the opportunity to hear all of this testimony and come back and rebut it , then they must not be listening .

So I just want to say that we are fair and we will be thorough . I came into this hearing with an unbiased , unprejudiced mind . I don ' t have an ATV like you do . I don ' t want one , necessarily . But I am saying that I think it is unfair to libel this committee , or at least say that we are being unfair before we even get into the hear ings ; and I must take offense at that . Mr . Kolter , do you have a statement ? Mr . KOLTER . No statement , Mr . Chairman . Mr . BARNARD . Mr . Erdreich . Mr . ERDREICH . No , Mr . Chairman .