Great Lakes Restoration Initiative Act of 2014

Floor Speech

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Mr. KELLY of Pennsylvania. Mr. Speaker, I would like to thank the gentleman from Ohio, but I would also like to thank a lady and a Member, whom I have begun to call our ``lady of our lakes.'' Ms. Kaptur, thank you so much for speaking out the way you do about the Great Lakes, and also Mr. Joyce, a very good colleague and a friend, because we all understand what it is that makes the Great Lakes great. I think that is the whole point of what we are talking about. This is a gift from God.

Now, you have heard Mr. Joyce talk about some of the statistics. But when you think about it, if you just close your eyes for 1 minute and visualize in your mind's eye the continental United States, the land mass. The volume of freshwater contained in our Great Lakes would cover that land mass by 9 1/2 to 10 feet. It is an incredible amount of water. But, more importantly, it is an incredible gift from God. We have to protect this area. Why would we not?

The statistics that we talk about are overwhelming. We thank a lot of people for being involved in this. But do you know who I want to thank more than anybody else? The hardworking American taxpayers. By our Constitution, we are granted the authority to tax them, but we are also given the responsibility to spend their money the right way. Why would we have a situation where we can't imagine that we would fund the Great Lakes Restoration Initiative? It just doesn't make sense.

One-fifth of the world's freshwater, not one-fifth of Pennsylvania, not one-fifth of the United States, not one-fifth of North America, but one-fifth of the world's freshwater resides in our Great Lakes. I would suggest to people that talk about energy, you can go a lot longer without oil than you can without drinking water. We have an opportunity to do something that just makes sense to each and every one of us. We can get this done.

If I may, just for a minute, to paraphrase Luke 12:48:

To whom much is given, much is required.

Mr. Speaker, I would suggest that this is not an option, this is a moral obligation on behalf of the people of this great country to look at one of the assets that we have, a gift from God, and make sure that we preserve it for future generations.

I thank both gentlemen from Ohio, the lady from Ohio, and everybody else who was involved in this. I especially want to do a shout-out to a young man who works in the Northeast-Midwest Coalition, a guy by the name of Sam Breene, who lives and breathes the lake's initiatives. I want to thank him for his hard work, and I want to thank everybody involved in getting this taken care of.

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