Louis Stokes: “Mr. Chairman, I rise to take a moment to firstly express my appreciation to the gentleman from New York [Mr. Boehlert]…”

“Mr. Chairman, I rise to take a moment to firstly express my appreciation to the gentleman from New York [Mr. Boehlert] for the strong leadership that he has given to the coalition force between the Democrats and Republicans of this House. Mr. Chairman, on Friday we saw one of those rare moments in the House where the Members of this body rose above partisan politics and put the people of this Nation first. We saw the environment of this Nation put above party politics. We saw men and women in this body who expressed themselves in a way that is seldom seen in this House. On both sides, we saw people who really cared about the people in this country. Mr. Chairman, when this matter is revoted, people in this country are going to be watching. All over the Nation this past weekend, as the gentleman from New York said, the Nation watched what happened here Friday. They are going to be watching again tonight, to see how many of us stand up for the principles that we showed here on Friday. This vote will never go away. Mr. Chairman, this vote is going to live with all of us for a long time. I would urge those Members who stood up on principle and put environment above party to stand up once again tonight and show that you care about clean water and clean air and pure food for the people of this country. I urge my colleagues to stand up as they did on Friday in support of the Stokes-Boehlert amendment.”