Congressman Lester Wolff National Wildlife Refuge

Floor Speech

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Mr. SUOZZI. Mr. Speaker, I want to thank the gentlewoman from Hawaii and the gentleman from Colorado for recognizing me to support H.R. 6064, which will rename the Oyster Bay Wildlife Refuge as the Congressman Lester Wolff National Wildlife Refuge.

As Congressman Lamborn pointed out, Congressman Wolff is the oldest living former Member of Congress, and he will be celebrating his 100th birthday on January 4, 2019.

The Congressman, back in the 1960s, got into a big battle with a very well-known figure in New York in government and politics at the time, and really known throughout the Nation as the Power Broker, Robert Moses.

They wanted to build a bridge across the Long Island Sound from Connecticut to Oyster Bay, and Congressman Wolff, who was a freshman Congressman at the time, recognized the importance of preserving this important natural resource and created the Oyster Bay National Wildlife Refuge. It is one of the most important areas for natural refuge anywhere on the north shore of Long Island today and home to many types of waterfowl, such as black ducks; greater scaups; bufflehead, canvasback, and long-tail ducks; as well as great herons; and, now, osprey and red-tailed hawks.

This was a major battle when the environmental movement was very nascent at the time in the United States of America, and it took tremendous courage on the part of Congressman Wolff to stand up to Robert Moses at the time and the Governor of New York State, then- Governor Nelson Rockefeller, to preserve this important piece of property, as well as to block the bridge that would have gone across the Long Island Sound, an 8.5-mile bridge across the Long Island Sound from Connecticut to Long Island.

So this is a great, fitting tribute for a wonderful man who we hope will be able to enjoy his 100th birthday celebrating the naming of the Congressman Lester Wolff National Wildlife Refuge.

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