[Congressional Record Volume 140, Number 41 (Friday, April 15, 1994)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Page E]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Printing Office [www.gpo.gov]


[Congressional Record: April 15, 1994]
From the Congressional Record Online via GPO Access [wais.access.gpo.gov]

 
                   OPPORTUNITIES FOR THE DELTA REGION

                                 ______


                           HON. BILL EMERSON

                              of missouri

                    in the house of representatives

                        Thursday, April 14, 1994

  Mr. EMERSON. Mr. Speaker, I am pleased to join with my friend and 
colleague from Arkansas, Ms. Lambert, in introducing the Lower 
Mississippi Delta Initiatives Act of 1994. This bill establishes a 
comprehensive Federal effort to promote expanded educational 
opportunities, economic development, and cultural tourism in the seven-
State lower Mississippi Delta region.
  The lower Mississippi Delta region of the country consists of 219 
counties and parishes that are among the Nation's poorest. When the 
Lower Mississippi Delta Development Commission, chaired by then-
Governor Bill Clinton, issued its report in May 1990, the statistics 
were eye opening. Substantial poverty, poor health, high infant 
mortality, lack of education, and lack of suitable infrastructure are 
among the factors which have limited the opportunities available to 
residents of the delta region.
  Despite these adverse conditions, the people of the delta prefer hope 
to despair. They are hard-working and forthright, and they are one of 
the region's most tremendous resources. They did not come to the 
Congress looking for a handout; rather, the Congress is, by virtue of 
this bill, offering the region a hand up.
  This bill would expand the Department of Energy's Institutional 
Conservation Program and Low-Income Weatherization Assistance Program 
to provide energy efficiency improvements to schools, hospitals, and 
low-income dwellings within the delta region. It would also establish 
educational initiatives and scholarships in the areas of natural 
resources, the environment, the sciences, cultural resource management, 
historic preservation, aquaculture, and archeology. In addition this 
bill would authorized Federal grants to States for upgrading or 
maintaining public roads and trails that provide access to designated 
tourist sites. Also this bill would authorize funding to the Lower 
Mississippi Delta Development Center in Memphis to continue 
coordinating the goals of the Delta Development Commission's report to 
Congress.
  I am truly excited about the potential unleashed by the Lower 
Mississippi Delta Initiatives Act of 1994. This bill takes the 
suggestions and recommendations of the Delta Commission's report to 
Congress in 1990 a big step forward. This bill provides further hope to 
improve the quality of life for folks in the Mississippi Delta region. 
A similar bill passed last November in the Senate and I would like to 
see this bill swiftly enacted in the House.

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