Political Quotes

“Madam President, I met with Jo Ellen Darcy, the Assistant Secretary for the Army Corps of Engineers. She came to my office last week to discuss the low levels of water on the Mississippi River. This week the National Weather Service reported the river was 4 feet below its average water level at this time of year. I saw it last Friday when I drove over the bridge going from Lambert Airport in St. Louis headed home to Springfield. If the level keeps decreasing, the river may become too shallow for barge traffic to pass between St. Louis, MO, and Cairo, IL. The Mississippi River is a critical transportation artery for essential commodities, so the financial impact if the river shuts down could reach far beyond the Midwest. The low water levels are the result of this summer's devastating drought that has been continuing to plague many States in the United States. It has been the worst drought in more than half a century in the Midwest. As of last month, over 60 percent of the United States was experiencing drought conditions still. In my State of Illinois, over 90 percent of the land is still ``abnormally dry'' or worse. Economists now predict that the drought will cost the government over $12 billion in aid to farmers and ranchers. This is in addition to the cost of destruction caused in late October by Hurricane Sandy, the largest hurricane to ever form in the Atlantic basin.…”