Political Quotes

“A little over a year ago, Maine had suffered one of the worst storms of the century. It was the ice storm of the century. Maine residents were without power for over 2 weeks, in most cases. We are talking about nearly 70 percent of all the Maine households who lost power for that period, affecting and impacting over 1.2 million people in the State of Maine. Lewiston, the second largest city in the State of Maine, suffered nearly 100 percent power loss. Farmers and small businesses were devastated by the ice storm. That is why I strongly support and worked with the committee to make these reforms necessary so that, next time around, the only natural disaster occurs is the one we are working to clean up, not the one after the government comes in to try to help people work on. This is a bipartisan bill focusing our attention on the pre- and post-disaster mitigation assistance and better preparing our communities for the future. I am in particular support of the pieces that deal with Maine farmers and forestry and dairy, who were especially hard hit.”