John Bel Edwards: “let me thank Mr. Udall for his kind comments, and both Mr. Udall and Mr. Pearce for their excellent floor management of…”

“let me thank Mr. Udall for his kind comments, and both Mr. Udall and Mr. Pearce for their excellent floor management of all of these bills today. Mr. Speaker, our communities and Nation have a responsibility to be good stewards of our water resources. That is why I introduced H.R. 3418, the Central Texas Water Recycling Act of 2006. This bill will authorize Federal matching funds, 25 percent Federal, 75 percent local, to help build an innovative water recycling program partnership in my home town of Waco, Texas, and several neighboring communities in McClennan County. Instead of wasting valuable drinking water for use in factories and on golf courses, we will be able to use lower-cost recycled wastewater for those purposes and save enough drinking water for 20,000 family households in McClennan County. The bottom line is this: being good stewards of our water supply, we will reduce water costs for businesses, save central Texas taxpayers millions of dollars, encourage economic growth in our area, and improve water quality in our central Texas rivers. Mr. Speaker, I want to thank Chairman Pombo and ranking member Rahall for their support of this measure, and the subcommittee chairman, Mr. Radanovich, the ranking subcommittee member, Mrs. Napolitano, for their key role in this bill's passage. This is the kind of bipartisan effort that shows what Congress can accomplish when we work together on a bipartisan basis.…”