Max Baucus: “Mr. President, I rise this morning with my colleagues from North Dakota and South Dakota to discuss the Army Corps of…”

“Mr. President, I rise this morning with my colleagues from North Dakota and South Dakota to discuss the Army Corps of Engineers and particularly the Missouri River system. We are here today to make our side of the story known on what is called the Preferred Alternative to the Missouri River Master Water Control Manual. That sounds very technical, but it is really about the heart and soul of our State of Montana. Let me explain. It is difficult to describe what the Missouri River means to Montana. People across the country may be familiar with the writer Norman Maclean's book ``A River Runs Through It.'' He grew up in Missoula, and the title refers to the Big Blackfoot on the western side of the Divide. But for so many of us growing up east of the Continental Divide, the river is the Missouri. This river was part of our life before we became a State. Our attachment to Missouri began eight decades before statehood, when Lewis and Clark came up in their boats way back in 1805. I grew up in the Helena Valley. My parents and friends--my friends and I, in particular, spent our summers swimming in Holter Lake by my family's ranch on the Missouri. Sometimes in Hauser Lake, sometimes Canyon Ferry. Is it impossible to imagine Montana without lie on the Missouri River.”