Political Quotes

“Mr. President, I so appreciate the leadership, the heart of Senator Ernst and the ability to work with my colleagues on the other side of the aisle--Senator Durbin, Senator Feinstein--in this effort towards reauthorization of the Violence Against Women Act. Thanks to the very open, very inclusive, and, really, a very transparent process that we followed, the bipartisan support that was built with this, we were able to include the VAWA reauthorization in the Omnibus appropriations bill that passed the Senate last week with 68 votes. That wasn't necessarily the path that we had set on. But we had work to do, again, with extraordinary leadership from Senator Ernst, Senator Durbin, Senator Feinstein, myself, who have been working on this for years, but trying to build that collaborative effort, that negotiated effort that would result in not a partisan bill but a bill that is designed to help those survivors, designed to help the most vulnerable at their time of need. So there is great thanks that is due this afternoon as we recognize the dedication, the leadership of, again, the cosponsors, the Members that led this, but we all know we are backed by incredible men and women who work very hard to get these initiatives built and across the finish line. Senator Durbin has named many of the staffs and general counsels, our legislative assistants that made this happen.…”