Political Quotes

“This amendment prohibits funds provided by this act from closing campgrounds or parks operated by the Army Corps of Engineers and located at or around Lake Sidney Lanier, Georgia. I can certainly understand the strong interest in preventing the Corps from closing campgrounds and parks in a particular area. Frankly, I wish my area had one, but we don't have Corps facilities like that. The gentleman has been blessed. The Corps of Engineers is one of the Nation's leading Federal providers of outdoor recreation. Its recreation sites receive 262 million visits each year and include more than 400 lake and river projects in 43 States. Unfortunately, the Corps of Engineers' recreation funding has been declining in recent years. I support the notion that we do not want the Corps to begin closing recreation sites due to lack of funding. However, this is an issue that affects hundreds of sites across dozens of States. I do not believe we here today should begin the practice of using funding prohibitions to carve out special designations, but instead should develop a comprehensive solution, fair to all regions across our Nation, to address the challenge of funding the Corps' recreation sites. I would welcome the opportunity to work with the gentleman on that and obviously the chair of the full committee. For this reason, I oppose the amendment at this time, but look forward to working with my colleagues to develop a solution to the larger problem.…”