On the recordJuly 23, 2012
This legislation authorizes the National Park Service to study roughly 86 miles of rivers in Connecticut and Rhode Island for possible designation as Wild and Scenic Rivers. The Wild and Scenic Rivers program currently protects the free- flowing condition of more than 12,000 miles of rivers in 38 States. Unfortunately, this is less than 1 quarter of 1 percent of the rivers in the United States. In contrast, more than 75,000 large dams restrict the flow of roughly 600,000 miles of river. This is about 17 percent of the river miles in this country. Mr. Langevin is to be commended for his hard work on behalf of his constituents and the natural resources within his State. I reserve the balance of my time.
