Political Quotes

“when the Senate returns to the consideration of the Interior appropriations bill, I intend to offer an amendment that would redirect the bill's earmark of $3 million to create a 20,000 acre national wildlife refuge in western Kentucky. On Monday, the Senate approved the energy and water appropriations bill that, due to budget constraints imposed by this Congress, will not adequately fund an important, existing environmental project in western Kentucky called the Land Between the Lakes. LBL is a 170,000-acre preserve located just 15 miles east of the Interior bill's proposed wildlife refuge. I fail to see the logic of what some people are proposing here: inadequately fund one outdoor facility, the Land Between the Lakes, on Monday, and then, just days later, try to appropriate funding for a new facility just 15 miles away. In Marshall County, where most of the proposed refuge would be located, the judge/executive has asked me, ``why don't we take care of what we've got before we open a new nature preserve?'' I could not agree more. The fact of the matter is that we are not taking care of the Land Between the Lakes. Its appropriation has dropped by one-third since 1994 even as millions of dollars' worth of maintenance projects pile up. The rider in the Interior appropriations bill will ensure that LBL and other wilderness projects continue to go begging in years to come.”