Political Quotes

“Tupelo, Mississippi, the town of my birth and my hometown, is known for a lot of things: the birthplace of Elvis Presley; we are the headquarters of the Natchez Trace Parkway. One of the things we are also very proud of is we are the very first TVA city. Many people around America think of the difference between rural America and city as the difference between whether you have a shopping mall, a lot of nice restaurants, things like that. Eighty years ago, the differences between rural and urban America were even more stark. That is why today it is my privilege to rise as we celebrate the 80th anniversary of the Tennessee Valley Authority. In the 1930s, rural America did not have many of the basic things of life like electricity, running water, and a lot of the things that we consider frills today, like radio, music, and news. As a result, many Americans, particularly younger generations of Americans, were migrating from the small towns and the farms across rural America and moving to the larger cities. Seeing this shift, a couple of visionary members of the Congress, including my predecessor, Mississippi Representative John Rankin, and Senator George Norris from Nebraska, made it their mission to bring electricity to rural America. On May 18, 1933, the Tennessee Valley Authority was created by this Congress in an effort to improve the living conditions and the economic conditions for seven southern States, including Mississippi.…”