America's Water Infrastructure Act of 2020

Floor Speech

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Mr. BARRASSO. Madam President, before my friend and colleague, Senator Carper from Delaware, leaves the floor, I will tell you what a privilege it is to work with him, and we have worked together as partners on the Environment and Public Works Committee. As you know, every chair works with a ranking member, and I couldn't have a better partner than I have in Tom Carper. He has been magnificent in times, always trying to find a right solution that is a bipartisan solution, and we have done it again today on the Environment and Public Works Committee as we passed two major pieces of water infrastructure legislation.

Last year, we passed highway legislation, and he is focused, as am I, on rebuilding for America the highways, the bridges, repairing as well the tunnels, all of the areas--roads, bridges, ports, riverways, reservoirs. I could not find a better partner.

You know, it is interesting he mentioned Matthew 25, and if you read Matthew 25, it was Ben Franklin's favorite Bible verse. What Ben Franklin would say is, if someone chose to live their life by one Bible verse, if they chose Matthew 25, he said, the world would be a better place. Tom Carper is one who leads his life every day consistent with the teaching and the readings and the writings of the Gospel of Matthew 25.

He mentioned my good friend Rob Wallace from Wyoming, who is now the Assistant Secretary of the Interior overseeing parks, as well as fish and wildlife for the country. Rob always said, as was so quoted by our Ranking Member Carper, that bipartisan solutions are the best solutions. He is somebody who knows. He worked on the Hill. He worked as a staffer for former Senator Malcolm Wallop of Wyoming and then on the Energy Committee when Senator Wallop was so actively involved in those days in the 1980s and '90s.

But the other thing that Rob Wallace talked about, to which Senator Carper and I agree as well, is there are lands in this great country that need to be protected and preserved and passed on because, as Rob pointed out that day, he said whether it was John Muir, who carried a stick, whether it was Ansel Adams, who carried a camera, or Teddy Roosevelt, who carried a gun all into these vast areas of our country, they all recognized, no matter what they were carrying, the value that these wonderful lands meant for the people of our country, and we needed to make sure that they were there for generations to come.

I know that the work that Senator Carper is doing on this committee is meant for generations to come, and it is a privilege to work with him.

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