[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 159 (2013), Part 4]
[House]
[Page 4932]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                              {time}  1210
          WESTERN NEW YORKERS WILL FIGHT FOR WHAT THEY DESERVE

  (Mr. HIGGINS asked and was given permission to address the House for 
1 minute.)
  Mr. HIGGINS. Mr. Speaker, in western New York, we don't expect 
anything to be handed to us. History has taught us that we have to 
fight for what we deserve. Our community just won two recent victories 
against Federal bureaucracies by standing up and demanding better.
  When the Veterans Administration decided to cancel the Golden Age 
Games just 2 months before they were to be held in Buffalo and stick 
our community with a $2.2 million loss, the community fought back. Last 
week, the VA reversed its decision and announced that the games would 
proceed as planned.
  When the Army Corps of Engineers decided to prohibit access to Squaw 
Island Pier in Buffalo, a popular fishing destination on the 
waterfront, we pushed back hard. This morning, I met with Corps 
officials. They assured me that public access to the site would 
continue.
  Western New Yorkers won two victories in 2 weeks because we stood up 
for ourselves. Let this be a lesson to our community and a warning to 
the Federal bureaucracy: when you make senseless decisions that hurt 
western New York, you're going to have a fight on your hands.

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