Political Quotes

“as a representative of an urban district, I am proud to express my strong support for the Boehlert-Kind-Gilchrest-Dingell amendment. My citizens in Parma, OH, a suburb of Cleveland, have been struggling for over a year to save wetlands in their city from development. A century of sprawl has left only 153 acres of wetlands there. These wetlands are part of a watershed of the Cuyahoga River, an American Heritage river that feeds into Lake Erie, and these wetlands are critical to ecological health. The citizens in my district, in their effort to set wetlands aside and restore them, need a federal solution. The programs in the Boehlert-Kind-Gilchrest-Dingell amendment are needed now more than ever to help. These programs are critical in order to preserve urban greenspace and dedicate resources to wetland preservation before development takes over all greenspace and wetlands. The Boehlert-Kind-Gilchrest-Dingell amendment would help protect the more than 90 million of acres of farmland that are currently threatened by sprawl by increasing funding to $100 million for FY2002 and increasing this amount through 2011. It would protect urban greenspace by boosting mandatory funding to $50 annually through 2011. These programs are crucial to cities across America. My citizens are struggling with the problems of sprawl and lack of wetlands protection now.”