Political Quotes

“I must respond briefly to the Senator from California, because I believe it is a bit unusual for those who are not actually drinking the water to expect that they are going to have even a higher level of concern about the water than those who do drink it. I mean that is essentially the tenor of the argument, which is that the elected officials in--wherever it was--or the county commissioner group, or water commissioner group, is going to somehow turn its back on not only the community that it lives in, but its own good health, but that we here in Washington are going to know how to take care of it better for them. Now, that may be. That situation might occur. That hypothetical is a possibility. I suppose that is true, but it is not a likelihood. Most people, when they are elected to public office, are elected because they conscientiously wish to improve their community, and if they know something is wrong with the water, they are going to try to do something about it primarily out of their own concern. I really think that to raise issues like pregnant women and lead in the water is to use hyperbole that is not relevant to this amendment, which is not really a gutting amendment, as the Senator characterized it. It is a simple amendment that says, listen, if you do not fund it, you do not fine until you do fund it. And it is reasonable that you are going to be funding all of this. On the chairman's description of the way this bill works, that is going to occur.”