Perhaps once the judge in Federal court in New Orleans decides on the fine on BP and the money starts to flow through the RESTORE Act, then perhaps that would be another source of funding.

Senator Rubio and I want to thank all of you for coming.

I know you are not a lawyer. Do you have any opinion with regard to the lower court, the district court judge's ruling that gave that flexibility?

Our oystermen, their families, all those who depend on a healthy bay are now depending on us.

Yesterday Secretary Pritzker determined that a fishery resource disaster did occur.

The problem is not just the holding back of the water at Lake Lanier and that flow south, although that is the major problem.

The Freshwater Flows legislation is strongly supported by the Apalachicola Riverkeeper, Seafood Management Assistance Resource and Recovery Team (SMARRT), National Wildlife Federation, Florida Wildlife Federation, and many others.

We can send him on a vacation for $110 million, but we can't save an ecosystem in a community, a livelihood, a lifestyle?

I hope the money comes, and we are going to work hard to make that happen. But beyond that, what I want to make clear is it is not enough; we can't stop there.

the rapid and unprecedented commercial oyster fishery failure on Florida's Gulf Coast was the result of upstream consumption and water management policies . . . which exacerbated the impact of severe drought conditions.

For over two decades, we have fought our neighbors to the north over the freshwater that flows south.

we passed in 1972 the Water Management Districts Act in Florida.