Politics & Power Quote by Jim Costa

“Conservation is an American value” is a pressure move: it rebrands what could sound like a partisan environmental objection as a patriotic baseline. Jim Costa isn’t arguing from the fringe of ideology; he’s claiming the center of the national story. The phrase does quiet rhetorical work by folding conservation into identity rather than policy, suggesting that to neglect it isn’t just a legislative mistake but a kind of civic unfaithfulness.

The second clause, “and it is lacking from this bill,” flips the knife. It’s deliberately spare, almost bureaucratic, which makes the charge feel clinical and therefore harder to dismiss as moralizing. Costa implies a test the bill fails: not whether it benefits his party or district, but whether it meets a shared standard of stewardship. The subtext is that the bill’s authors either forgot that standard or chose to violate it - and either option is damning.

Context matters because “conservation” is one of the few environmental terms in U.S. politics with bipartisan lineage: Roosevelt-era land protection, hunting and fishing constituencies, water management in the West. Costa, a California Democrat from an agriculture-heavy region, is also signaling to cross-pressured voters that conservation isn’t anti-growth; it’s about safeguarding the natural systems that economies rely on. The line is designed for soundbites and committee rooms alike: a values claim broad enough to invite coalition, sharp enough to brand opponents as out of step with something older than the current news cycle.