Political Quotes

“for the 10th anniversary of Hurricane Katrina, I went down to the Lower Ninth Ward. President Obama had a little convocation which I was privileged to be part of. I pointed out that his budget that year attempted to take the money that the Federal Government had committed, voted on by a majority of this Chamber, to share in the offshore revenue from Louisiana's coast, Texas's coast, and other Gulf Coast States, with those States. I said: Mr. President, your budget is taking this money away. If you look at the devastation wrought by Katrina, it was wrought because we lost our wetlands, which was a loss directly connected to the Federal Government's decision to channel the Mississippi River for the benefit of the rest of the country's economy, and also because the Army Corps of Engineers failed to build--and this has been established in court--levees to the degree that would protect the city of New Orleans. The President clearly agreed. He said so. He looked at his budget man, Shaun Donovan, and said: Why would this be? We need this State to have that money. I paraphrase, but it was essentially that. And he committed to taking care of that issue so that our State would not be confronted with the kind of disaster Katrina was. He did not want this to happen again. On Tuesday the President released his fiscal year 2017 budget.…”