Political Quotes

“this afternoon I rise to urge my colleagues to vote for cloture on the pending Shelby amendment on the floor. My amendment provides critical resources to those impacted by a wide range of natural disasters in 2018--fires, earthquakes, volcanoes, hurricanes, and tornadoes, among others. It also includes funding to begin to address some of the 2019 disaster damage. This funding, I believe, is essential to aid our fellow Americans who are working to pick up the pieces and move on. There is a broad agreement, basically, on both sides of the aisle--Democrat and Republican--that this legislation should address 2019 disasters, and, both, my amendment and the underlying bill, do this. There are, however, two glaring differences that I would like to discuss briefly. First, the Shelby amendment provides assistance to those affected by the 2019 disasters. The underlying bill does not. Secondly, the Shelby amendment has the support of the President. The underlying bill does not. This assistance is not just for those whose lives were destroyed by the tornado that recently hit my home State of Alabama. It is also for those whose homes, crops, and livestock have been swept away by catastrophic flooding in the Midwest that we all witnessed recently. Thus far, my Democratic colleagues have been unwilling to help these people unless their demands are met. What are their demands? Not more resources for 2018 or 2019 disasters, which is what the thrust of this bill is about.…”