Political Quotes

“I appreciate the comments just delivered by my colleague from Washington State. Our two States are roughly the same size. They have similar amounts of coastline. We have citizens who share a lot of perspective on the country and that may be apparent in the comments I am about to make. Mr. President, from our earliest days, long before the Founding Fathers gathered in Philadelphia to declare that 13 disparate colonies were united and ``absolved from all allegiance to the British Crown'' and long before they sought to ``form a more perfect Union,'' our streams, our rivers, and our lakes have been the economic lifeblood of our Nation. They have supported commerce and trade, fishing and agriculture. They have facilitated the ability to travel the vastness of this continent. They have sustained our growing communities and served as critical resources for public health. It is no wonder, then, that generations of Americans have worked incredibly hard to protect these natural resources to keep them clean and safe. That is why here, in the Senate and in the House, in 1972, we passed the Clean Water Act that formed the foundation for our Nation's water regulations. It is why, 2 years later, the House and Senate developed and passed the Safe Drinking Water Act, to make sure that public drinking water supplies are safe throughout the Nation. I recall the impact of these acts in my home State of Oregon. The Klamath River was considered extraordinarily polluted.…”