Barbara Boxer: “I rise now to speak in opposition to the Barrasso amendment No. 868 and to explain why. Before I talk about why I hope…”

“I rise now to speak in opposition to the Barrasso amendment No. 868 and to explain why. Before I talk about why I hope the Senate will defeat this amendment, I wish to thank my colleagues on both sides of the aisle for working so closely with me and with Senator Vitter. The underlying bill is a very good bill and it protects every State. We look at every State's needs. Whether it is flooding, whether it is preserving fishing, whether it is about ports, whether the ports are inland or coastal, medium, small, or large, we have gone out of our way on both sides of the aisle to accommodate Senators. I wish to speak about Barrasso amendment No. 868, which will be the first amendment to come before us. It is an anti-environmental rider. Now, here we go again, again and again and again. There is no reason to bring these anti-environmental riders onto every single piece of legislation that goes through here, but yet that is what we face. So I agreed that we would have a vote on this in the spirit of good faith because it certainly is not germane to this bill. It is not. It has to do with the Clean Water Act. It does not have to do with the Water Resources Development Act.…”