Political Quotes

“I thank my colleague from California for working with me on this. I am glad to hear the elevation that this issue is getting. In fact, on Monday I met with Andrie Shipping out of Muskegon, Michigan, in my district about this issue, among other issues regarding Great Lakes shipping. I can tell you, though, that it seems to me as we passed the WRRDA bill just a short 7 weeks ago, as you pointed out, I was willing to compromise on that glide path. What I don't see currently is that glide path to the direction. We are, as you point out, nearly $58 million below what was laid out in that WRRDA bill. The chairman from Idaho has a very difficult job balancing all this, and he has pointed out that the nuclear energy program is the way that we are going to offset this. I will point out, though, that it is appropriated for $899 million this year, a level that is $36 million above the President's budget request, $10 million above the fiscal year 2014 enacted level, and $243 million above the level proposed by the House Appropriations Committee for fiscal year 2014. So it doesn't seem to me we are exactly raiding that when everybody has said that we are overfunding that portion of the bill, and it seems to me that this is a great way of impacting our economy to help create jobs and to help create the momentum to continue to move forward. So with that, I just want to thank the committee for working towards a solution. I know that I, too, had signed on to Mr.…”