Political Quotes

“Mr. President, in a few moments, I will be asking unanimous consent for a really special person to be the Federal Cochair of the Great Lakes Authority, but let me speak a little bit, first, about him. Matthew Kaplan has been nominated to serve as the Federal Cochair of the Great Lakes Authority, and he really is an excellent choice for Cochair. I am so pleased that his nomination was reported out of the Committee on Environment and Public Works by voice vote in November. Matthew and I have a connection through his work for Congresswoman Marcy Kaptur, who is my partner in creating the Great Lakes Authority, which we successfully created back in 2022. I am so proud that we secured the first batch of funding to be able to start the program earlier this year, and by combining Federal money with State resources, the Great Lakes Authority will serve as a new economic development agency for the Great Lakes Region. And let me say, most regions of the country already have an economic development authority; the Great Lakes are one of just a couple that have not had one over the years, so this fills that gap. I am pleased that I was originally working on this with Senator Rob Portman here in the Senate, and our great Marcy Kaptur has been its champion in the House.…”