Political Quotes

“yesterday I introduced, along with Senators Inhofe, Vitter, Warner, Voinovich, Isakson, Thune, Murkowski, Obama, Landrieu, Grassley, Harkin, Talent, Cornyn, Cochran, Domenici and Coleman, the 2005 Water Resources Development Act, S. 728. The programs administered by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers are invaluable to this Nation. They provide drinking water, electric power production, river transportation, environmental protection and restoration, protection from floods, emergency response, and recreation. Few agencies in the Federal Government touch so many citizens, and with such little recognition by many, I might add, and they do it on a relatively small budget. They provide one-quarter of our Nation's total hydropower output, operate 456 lakes in 43 States, hosting 33 percent of all freshwater lake fishing. They facilitate the movement of 630 million tons of cargo valued at over $73 billion annually through our inland system. They manage over 12 million acres of land and water; provide 3 trillion gallons of water for use by local communities and businesses; and they have provided an estimated $706 billion in flood damage within the past 25 years with an investment one-seventh of that value. During the 1993 flood alone, an experience which I witnessed firsthand, an estimated $19.1 billion in flood damage was prevented by flood control facilities in place at that time. Our ports move over 95 percent of U.S. overseas trade by weight and 75 percent by value.…”