Political Quotes

“Mr. President, I am proud to join my colleague Senator Landrieu in introducing today this RESTORE the Gulf Coast Act of 2011. I want to also thank her and compliment her on her leadership on this issue. Senator Landrieu has been developing this legislation tirelessly since the tragedy, working with many others who will soon be cosponsors, we hope, in this effort. I also want to recognize Congressman Steve Scalise and his Louisiana House colleagues for having similar legislation in the House. As we near this 1-year anniversary of the disaster, first we need to remember the victims, the human victims--the 11 people who lost their lives and their families. Those families still have a huge hole in their lives, and we need to continue to remember them and pray for them. But we also need to help restore the affected area. A lot of other lives were impacted through the environmental and economic devastation. We need to work on that as well. This RESTORE the Gulf Coast Act of 2011 would go a long way in restoring those lives, in healing those impacts. This was a horrible tragedy, and, of course, the physical, the environmental damage was borne by these five Gulf Coast States. Therefore, we think it is more than fair that 80 percent of the fines directly related to this event-- which would not have been incurred, would not be in existence but for this tragedy--be dedicated to restoration along the gulf coast.…”