Political Quotes

“Mr. Speaker, I want to welcome the Congressman and doctor, Dan Benishek, from Michigan's First District, which encompasses Marquette and Mackinac Island and Traverse City, to name a few famous towns and island. I welcome him to participate this evening as well as our other colleagues from the Great Lakes. I rise tonight to mark the occasion of World Water Day. As such, I would like to discuss the Great Lakes, an American freshwater treasure, irreplaceable on our globe. Actually, it is the largest source of freshwater in the United States and represents about 20 percent of the world's freshwater supply. The district that I represent, which is a little south of Michigan, down in Ohio, sits nestled across Lake Erie's entire south coast, extending from Cleveland all the way west to Toledo and encompasses all of Ohio's ports but for one. There should be a sign, actually, on the Ohio Turnpike nearby that marks our shoreline as the step-off point, since Lake Erie is the most southern of all the lakes, as the largest body of freshwater on the face of the Earth. I see our dear colleague, the co-chair of the Great Lakes Task Force with me, Congressman Mike Kelly of Erie, Pennsylvania, who has joined us. It is also a great port city, nestled along these Great Lakes. Let me begin by saying, since the passage of the Clean Water Act in 1972, Lake Erie itself has been on a path to recovery. It got very sick back in the 20th century.…”