Political Quotes

“But, I say to the gentleman from California [Mr. Rohrabacher], I was a city councilman when they cut back on Federal revenue sharing. I was a city councilman when the biggest issue we had was to upgrade the sewage treatment plant. Had it not been for the Federal mandate, the wastewater from my hometown would still be flowing into St. Louis Bay, still be poisoning the oyster reefs off Pass Christian and Long Beach and Biloxi. That is not right. That is why we are lawmakers. We came here to be lawmakers for the Nation. The folks on your side of the aisle have made an excellent point. We need to be extremely judicious in the laws we make. We need to be extremely fair in the laws that we make. But we should also remember that we came here to be lawmakers and that we should have some laws that are common throughout the country, and some of those laws have to be that each community does not become a burden on the community downstream from them as far as wastewater, as far as toxic metals, as far as clean air. You will agree with that. I think what many of us are asking for on this particular bill, since there was not a hearing on the unfunded mandate bill, that there be clear and concise language in that bill that says we are not undoing anything from the past. We are just going to start talking more about what it is going to cost for locals when we pass something.”