Political Quotes

“in rising in opposition to this amendment, I do so because the amendment prohibits funds provided by this act from being used to close campgrounds or parks operated by the Army Corps of Engineers that are located at or around Lake Sidney Lanier in Georgia. I can certainly understand the strong interest in preventing the Corps from closing campgrounds and parks in any particular area and certainly this one. The Corps is one of the Nation's leading Federal providers of outdoor recreation. They do not provide it in my district, though it would be nice if they did. In this place, the Corps' recreation sites receive more than 260 million visits each year and include more than 400 lake and river projects in 43 States. They have a very broad reach. Unfortunately, the Corps of Engineers' recreation funding has declined in recent years, and I support the notion that we do not want the Corps to close recreation sites due to lack of funding. However, this is an issue that affects hundreds of sites across dozens of States. Then there are places like I represent where we don't have any Corps sites but we would like one. I don't believe we should begin the practice of using funding prohibitions to carve out special designations but, instead, should develop a comprehensive solution to address the challenge of funding Corps recreation sites. For this reason, at this moment I oppose the amendment.”