On the recordAugust 5, 2015
I come to the floor once again to make an attempt at passing a very important, commonsense piece of legislation that is bipartisan. It helps to ensure that the drinking water supplies in northern Ohio, Lake Erie, and throughout our State, the freshwater reservoirs and other lakes that are providing water--and also around the country--to make sure that will be something the U.S. Federal Government is helping with as much as possible through new legislation to get the EPA more involved. I bring this legislation to the floor for the third time in the last several days to try to pass it. I do so with the hopes that we can get this done tonight. I thank my colleague from Ohio, Sherrod Brown, who has been cosponsoring and supporting this effort. I thank my colleagues on both sides of the aisle for working with us. We have been working for several weeks to get this cleared. Most recently, we had an issue with regard to legislation the Democrats wanted to add to it. I think we have now resolved those issues. I thank Robert Duncan of the floor staff for working so closely with us on this. I thank my colleague from Rhode Island, Senator Whitehouse, for working with us. This is legislation which is both important and urgent. This week marks the 1-year anniversary since the water supplies in Toledo, OH, had to be cut off because there were toxic algal blooms in the lake that were going into the water intake system.…
