Political Quotes

“Mr. President, one of the things I have learned from the Energy and Water Subcommittee, which is the committee that handles appropriations for the Army Corps of Engineers, is how difficult it is to get projects started, funded, and constructed. I am one-- particularly in view of storms, earthquakes, floods, and damages--who believes we also need to do the mitigation, because if it happens once, there is a heavy likelihood it could happen again. So I rise in opposition to this amendment. The provision the Senator from Oklahoma proposes would essentially take a Corps project that has been authorized and a study is being done. Once the study has concluded and it is cost-effective, the Corps proceeds to construction. With respect to mitigation, what this amendment does is--as I understand it--remove that authorization. I can understand how the language before was overly broad. What Senator Boxer and I did in an earlier amendment was narrow that language, and we have addressed the shortcoming of the provision by striking it with an earlier amendment. We took amendment No. 3421 and replaced it with new text. This new text no longer authorizes an undefined set of projects; rather, it directs funding to be utilized to construct projects in areas that suffered direct inundation impact from Hurricanes Sandy and Isaac. It provides a defined scope for the work the Corps can construct with the funds provided.…”