Political Quotes

“I come to the floor today to discuss an issue that is important in my State and I think in every State. Illinois, which I represent and am proud to represent, is a State with the great American city of Chicago but with many other towns and cities of a variety of different sizes. I actually was born in downstate Illinois, 300 miles away from Chicago. Between the great city of Chicago and the rest of our State, there are many small towns and rural areas. When you go into these areas and talk about the quality of life and living in a small town or rural America, there are a lot of challenges. Just a few weeks ago I was in Calhoun County, one of the smallest in our State. We had an assembly of kids in middle school and grade school, and we announced that the local electric cooperative, the Illinois Electric Cooperative, was finally going to bring that level of access to the internet for which Calhoun County--the people who live there and those students--have been waiting for a decade or longer. It took longer for it to reach there. I am glad the electric cooperative led the fight. Historically, the electric cooperatives literally brought electricity to rural America. Now they are bringing high-speed internet to rural America, and it is critically important for students to learn, along with all of the other services that many people living in big cities take for granted come with the internet.…”