Political Quotes

“Mr. Speaker, H.R. 4275 will reauthorize EPA's Lake Pontchartrain Basin Restoration Program for the next 5 years. Introduced by the gentlemen from Louisiana, Mr. Graves and Mr. Richmond, it reauthorizes the program for the next 5 years with continued funding of $20 million annually over 5 years. It also caps EPA's administrative expenses at 5 percent. At our June subcommittee hearing, we received testimony on current threats to the Lake Pontchartrain region and its watershed. Covering a 10,000-square-mile area, the basin faces impacts from logging, urban, and agriculture runoff, sewage overflows and nonpoint source pollution. This is an example of human development having an extreme impact on the entire watershed, capable of causing entire dead zones as we are now seeing. With impaired wetlands prevented from acting as natural filters for these pollutants, the entire lake is at risk. This program represents a collaborative effort for Federal, State, and local entities to restore the ecological health of the basin. Mr. Speaker, I urge my colleagues to support H.R. 4275, and I reserve the balance of my time.”