Political Quotes

“I am down on the Senate floor here to try to pass two really important pieces of legislation for a great part of Alaska, and this is the Alaska Native community in my State. These are incredible, patriotic Americans. By the way, Alaska Natives serve at higher rates in the military than any other ethnic group in the country. They are great Americans. They add so much to our State. They are the first peoples of Alaska, and so in my State, it is almost about 20 percent of the population. So it is a population I care deeply about. We work closely with them on so many different issues across so many different areas, and so I like to legislate in the areas that matter to them. And we are going to do that. You know, lately--and I am going to try to stay positive here; I have given speeches on the Senate floor about this before--some of my Democratic colleagues on the other side of the aisle have taken it out on the Alaska Native people in legislation, really kind of bad stuff. I am not going to be negative, but there has been this trend of anti-Alaska Native bias on the other side of the aisle. It has been very disappointing. To be honest, it has been puzzling. But I am hoping today, these two bills that we are going to move forward that go to the heart of Alaska Native culture in one and Alaska Native patriotism in the other are going to be UC'd.”