Political Quotes

“Madam President, today the Senate will pass a Water Resources Development Act, or WRDA, for the first time since 2007. I thank my colleagues, chairman Barbara Boxer and ranking member David Vitter of the Environment and Public Works Committee, for working together to move a bipartisan bill out of committee and to the floor. I know it wasn't easy, and compromises were made. But water resources development bills are important to the commerce that moves by river and sea, to those communities and towns that rely on the Corps of Engineers to protect them from flooding and other storm damage, and to maintaining the precious natural resources that our rivers, streams, and wetlands represent. We have an infrastructure problem in this country. The American Society of Civil Engineers estimates that we need $3.6 trillion investment in our failing infrastructure. I say failing not only because its literally crumbling but because the American Society of Civil Engineers 2013 Infrastructure Report Card gave America's infrastructure a ``D-plus.'' But for our inland waterways, levees, and ports that grade is a ``D-minus.'' As an example, consider the locks and dams on the Mississippi and Illinois Rivers. These two rivers are important economic arteries, transporting millions of tons of product each year. The locks and dams that allow barges to move these goods were built in the 1930s and 1940s. They are aging, and the risk of failure grows by the day.…”