Political Quotes

“Mr. Chairman, what this amendment does is it simply puts a cap on the amount of time that the United States Army Corps of Engineers can consider permission under section 408. This process has to do with alteration, any changes, or impacts that could occur to a Corps of Engineers project. I want to be clear, this doesn't expand the Corps of Engineers' authority in any way. All this does is it simply puts a cap, a time certain. Here is the reason why, Mr. Chairman. In the State of Louisiana, we have lost 1,900 square miles of our coast, 1,900 square miles of wetlands, some of the most ecologically productive areas on the North American continent. We have lost that. Part of the remedial efforts that Congress has authorized and we have been waiting decades for the United States Corps of Engineers to act upon are projects to reconnect the river system with the adjacent estuary. That is how south Louisiana was built. It is a product of the Mississippi River. It is a deltaic plain. These projects are strongly supported by the environmental community and others, yet the Corps of Engineers has said that it is going to take them years to consider this impact or not on the levee system. So we are going to sit here and wait years for more wetlands to erode, and for more of our environment and more of our ecological productivity to degrade. This puts a time certain. It gives 120 days for the Corps of Engineers to make a decision on whether or not there are impacts to the project.…”