Political Quotes

“I rise to support H.R. 6843, which is part of this package, the Atchafalaya National Heritage Area Boundary Remodification Act. I want to take just a moment to talk about the Atchafalaya. Le Grand Derangement--my French is off, but stay with me. When the British kicked the Acadians out of Canada and they migrated down to Louisiana and along the gulf coast, the Atchafalaya basin was where many of them settled, and their culture spread out from there. And if you think of our culture with the etouffee, the jambalaya, the crawfish, it all began in the Atchafalaya basin and built out from there. And if you look at a map, where the Mississippi comes down, draining most of the continental United States, and then the Red River comes down, which drains Colorado, Oklahoma, Texas--they meet, and the Atchafalaya is born. Prehistorically, the Atchafalaya River was an outlet for the Mississippi River. And if it were not for human engineering, it would once again be the outlet for the Mississippi. It is 1.4 million acres of swamps and wetlands and rivers--the largest wetlands in the United States. And I say this because this culture, this Acadian culture--one of the most unique, if not the most unique, in our country--began here. In our boundary modification, we extend the footprint of this, acknowledging that the Cajuns that came from Canada, finding refuge in the United States, putting a unique imprint--a unique imprint on our country. And I hesitate because I'm thinking.…”