Political Quotes

“Mr. President, before I begin my remarks this morning about the Energy Policy Modernization Act, I wish to acknowledge my colleague from Massachusetts. I come from a very large, remote State. About 80 percent of the communities in Alaska are not connected by a road, so one would think that our isolation would insulate us from some of the scourges that we see when it comes to drugs and drug addiction. Unfortunately, that is not the case. In my State we are seeing the same level of addiction. While the numbers might not be as eye-popping as Massachusetts or New Hampshire and other parts of the country, that is because we have fewer people. But on a per capita basis, the numbers are staggering and very worrying. As my colleague from Massachusetts notes, this is not something that should be a Republican or a Democratic problem or have a Republican or Democratic solution. This should have all of us working together because what is happening and what we are seeing is simply unacceptable. It is destroying families and communities, and we must work together. I appreciate his comments here before the body this morning. Mr. President, I hope the Senate is prepared for another good, busy day of debate on our broad bipartisan energy bill. Late yesterday, while we were not taking votes, we were in session for a few hours--but what we were able to do during that time period was approve eight more amendments by voice vote. We are now up to 19 amendments accepted so far.…”