Political Quotes

“this is another I think smart action this Congress could take to help the gulf coast and particularly the State of Louisiana. Before the Presiding Officer got to the Senate, in one of our last energy bills we were able to fund a very important program called the Coastal Impact Assistance Program. It is a precursor to the revenue-sharing program I helped to implement some years ago, although the money from that program hasn't yet started to flow. This was almost like a downpayment. It took some money from the Federal budget that we had made available, actually quite a bit--$1 billion--and divided it on a formula based on production and miles of coastline to the four gulf coast States that are bearing the brunt of this production, which is very obvious, painfully obvious today. The happy news is we got that program passed and the money has been funded to the agency. The sad news is, it is still tied up in red tape. So my amendment would expedite the dispersal of these funds, particularly to States where programs have already been approved by the Federal agencies in charge and when these programs can be shown to be of use in fighting this current oilspill.”