Ron Lewis: “I grew up in the Appalachian Mountains, and I remember the little one-lane roads, the dusty dirt roads, the lack of…”

“I grew up in the Appalachian Mountains, and I remember the little one-lane roads, the dusty dirt roads, the lack of utilities, the small one-room schools. I remember how it was. If you go into eastern Kentucky where I came from today, you will see a tremendous improvement. We still have a way to go. But now there are nice highways, nice schools, utilities reaching into the homes, paved highways. I remember my grandmother, you had to go about 3 or 4 miles up a hollow on dirt roads. And when it was raining, you could not get there. And I remember when she was very ill, we were concerned if she was going to be able to get out of that hollow to make it to the hospital. Today, you can drive all the way to where her home was at. It did make a big difference, but there are still things that need to be done. There has been a cut, 50 percent, but we need to continue this program. It is working, one of the few Federal programs that does work, but the reason it does work is because of the community input into it. I urge defeat of the Klug amendment.”