Political Quotes

“I support my friend's amendment to increase Federal funding to $5.2 billion next year to help local communities provide our families and businesses with safe drinking water and clean waste water. Our water pipes are aging and falling into disrepair. New regulations to treat stormwater are placing a huge burden on localities. Growth across the country, especially in the South and West, requires additional water funding. In my own State of Missouri, we have small communities such as Pickering of no more than 150 people that still lack sewer systems. Mid-size cities such as Lebanon have tripled water rates and still can't afford new EPA regulations. Even our large cities such as St. Louis face many of the problems our aging eastern urban areas face. A recent series of articles in the St. Louis Post Dispatch highlighted St. Louis still using sewer pipes more than 100 years old and made of wood. This crisis is too great for local communities to bear alone. Experts estimate the funding gap between what we as a Nation contribute and what is needed to clean and provide safe water at $500 billion over 20 years. That's $25 billion per year. The Federal Government can't close that gap alone, but we must provide more than the current paltry $2.2 billion per year.”