Political Quotes

“I want to thank the gentleman from Pennsylvania for yielding. I want to thank the gentleman from California for offering this amendment. Mr. Chairman, I actually want to discuss some of the provisions that were included in the manager's amendment that I think are very, very important. Number one, there is a provision in the manager's amendment that provides for the Corps of Engineers to take a fresh look at the old river control structure, a structure that diverts 70 percent of the water on the Mississippi River system down the Mississippi, and 30 percent down the Atchafalaya. That is a rigid structure that dates back decades and decades. It has not been revisited. The science has not been updated. It does not reflect the fact that we have additional monitoring stations; and so the plan, a rigid 70/30 split, doesn't maximize benefits to the lower system. We could be maximizing crawfish production, coastal restoration, navigation features, flood control, and others, and it is not happening. So, Mr. Chairman, this amendment is designed to address that, to direct the Corps of Engineers to modernize this, to ensure that current best science is being applied; to ensure that the monitoring stations are being used and that we are having the best outcomes for ecological productivity, for coastal restoration, for navigation, and, importantly, for flood control, and then stop this rigid, antiquated system of an artificial 70/30 split.…”