[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 150 (2004), Part 6]
[House]
[Page 7111]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                            THE GREAT LAKES

  (Mr. EMANUEL asked and was given permission to address the House for 
1 minute.)
  Mr. EMANUEL. Mr. Speaker, Lake Michigan and the other Great Lakes are 
the largest body of freshwater in North America. They contain literally 
20 percent of the entire world's freshwater. Twenty-eight million 
Americans get their daily drinking water from Lake Michigan and the 
other Great Lakes, and yet we treat it as just an overgrown pond. Today 
it is being polluted with invasive species, urban run-off, and mercury 
hot spots.
  We have a bipartisan bill endorsed by every Governor, every Senator 
from the Great Lakes, and 108 Members out of 125 from the Great Lakes 
region to clean up the Great Lakes, dedicate $4 billion over 5 years, 
just like we are investing in Iraq's water and sewage system, here in 
the United States to preserve the largest body of freshwater in all of 
North America.
  This issue is not an issue of left versus right. It is an issue of 
right versus wrong. And it is time to make our investments in our 
future and our environmental quality and water quality in what is truly 
a great national heritage, our Great Lakes.

                          ____________________