William Pryor: “I join my colleague from Arkansas to express thanks to the Committee on Environment and Public Works for including the…”

“I join my colleague from Arkansas to express thanks to the Committee on Environment and Public Works for including the language in section 304 of the Water Resources Development Act relating to the project purposes of the White River Basin Lakes in Missouri and Arkansas. This is a significant development for the tourism and recreation industries in our States. In Arkansas, tourism has become the second leading industry, directly behind agriculture, in terms of its impact on State and local economies. Nowhere is it felt more strongly than in the White River Basin. And it is not just the local economies that feel the impact. The tax revenues generated return to the Federal treasury an amount far exceeding the Federal investment. The White River Basin Lakes were authorized during an era when our Nation's needs and economies were quite different from today. While the Congresses of the 1940's were visionary and accomplished many positive things for our Nation in terms of flood control, and later power generation, it would have been impossible for them to imagine the development of tourist industries, such as Branson, MO, that would be affected by these lakes.”