On the recordSeptember 12, 2000
The disappearance of the Nation's wetlands is one of the greatest losses of this country. In the Central Mississippi Flyway, we have lost well over 50 percent of the wetlands that existed at the time of the formation of this Union. That is an irretrievable loss. No matter what we do, we cannot recreate those wetlands that have been lost. What we can do, at least what this legislation gives us the opportunity to do, is to protect those wetlands and those estuaries that remain. The great salt water estuaries of this world, of which the Chesapeake Bay is uncontestably the greatest, are the meeting places of salt and fresh water where new life forms take place, the creation of new life from the mixing of fresh and salt water.
Source
govinfo.gov
