Political Quotes

“I thank my colleague for not objecting. Let's just stop for a moment before we vote. The National Environmental Policy Act was not signed into law by FDR, not signed into law by Lyndon Johnson or John Kennedy, not signed into law by Barack Obama. It was signed into law by Richard Nixon, with bipartisan support--strong bipartisan support--some 50 years ago. The reason for the law was that they wanted--President Nixon and those who served in the Congress at the time--to make sure that, as we are proposing to build, we will say, large infrastructure projects around the country with Federal support, they wanted to make sure that the voices of the people whose lives would be affected by that would actually be heard. That was the idea behind doing this. I have been in the Senate about 21, 22 years and served on the Environment and Public Works Committee with Senator Simpson and others, and am privileged to chair the committee now. And about every year or 2, we pass major infrastructure legislation, and, a year ago, the largest infrastructure bill in the history of the country--roads, highways, bridges, water, drinking water, wastewater, you name it. Just last week, we passed, with one dissenting vote, the Water Resources Development Act legislation to reauthorize the Army Corps of Engineers to do projects all over America. I live in Wilmington, DE. I-95 goes right through Wilmington, DE. It cuts my city in half.…”