Political Quotes

“Mr. Chairman, one of the great honors I have here in Congress is to represent four great ports--Orange, Beaumont, Cedar Bayou, and the biggest port in Texas and one of the largest in the world: the Port of Houston. When America's astronauts who serve in space look out of their windows down at Houston, it is probably hard for them to make out their home away from home at Johnson Space Center; but what they can't miss is the scale and the strategic importance of the Port of Houston, which is right down the road from Johnson Space Center. The Greater Houston area is the energy production and chemical manufacturing capital of the world, and the Port of Houston's ability to ship those goods is directly responsible for billions of dollars in economic activity and for hundreds of thousands of good-paying jobs in our State and across the country; but like the city of Houston itself, not all of the port's important channels, tributaries, and other navigation assets that fall under the purview of the Corps of Engineers are within the footprint of what was originally authorized by Congress. Instead, many of these channels have been assumed for maintenance by the Corps of Engineers over the years. Each one has met the requirements of being environmentally acceptable, economically justified, and constructed in accordance with Federal permits and appropriate engineering and design standards. This, in itself, is not a bad thing.…”