Political Quotes

“Mr. Chairman, I yield such time as he might desire to the gentleman from New Jersey (Mr. LoBiondo). Mr. LoBIONDO. Mr. Chairman, I rise in strong support of the Clean Estuaries Act. I want to particularly thank Chairman Oberstar for his continued leadership and for moving so very quickly on this important legislation. I would also like to thank Chairwoman Eddie Bernice Johnson, Mr. Mica, and Mr. Boozman for their help on this very important issue as well. Finally, I would like to thank Mr. Bishop for his leadership and once again allowing me to join with him on an issue that we both find important and that we can make a difference with on a critical bill to keep our waters clean and to do this for future generations. As we have heard, the bill would authorize the National Estuary Program for another 5 years, allow the program to expand protections to other watersheds and provide--and I think this is very important-- greater accountability on how taxpayer money is spent, something that we should be doing more of. The bill will improve transparency, also something very important, by establishing periodic reviews of management plans and by requiring partners to demonstrate results, something, again, that is very important that we see what the results are. Partners that fall out of compliance with their plans will lose grant funds, and that's as it should be, because they should have to produce results.…”