Political Quotes

“I rise today in support of the Great American Outdoors Act. After yesterday's vote, where we voted to move to debate this bill at an 80-17 margin, it felt good. It felt good because some of us have been fighting this fight to fully fund the Land and Water Conservation Fund, in particular, for more than a decade. It is a program that Senator Udall explained yesterday that has worked out so very, very well since his dad introduced it back in the sixties. But the Great American Outdoors Act does more than just permanently fund the Land and Water Conservation Fund, which is a huge accomplishment in and of itself. It also puts money into our Park Service and areas around our parks that are so important for this country. Really, the park system is one of the jewels of this Nation. President Teddy Roosevelt was truly a visionary. At a time when there were plenty of wild places in this great Nation, he had the good sense to preserve some of them for future generations because he knew they would not be around forever. Quite frankly, the National Park System encompasses 419 parks, more than 84 million acres, including two crown jewels in Montana-- Yellowstone and Glacier National Park. These are places where Americans come together and experience the scale of America's natural beauty. However, I will tell you, in recent years we--the Congress--have not lived up to President Roosevelt's legacy, and our parks have been left to fall in disrepair.…”