Political Quotes

“Senator Feinstein, and I have been working on issues relating to terrorism from the time I first came to the Senate. We have been either chairman or ranking member, respectively, of the committee ever since that time. I can think of few issues that have galvanized our attention and effort--I can't think of any that have accomplished that--as much as this legislation. Of course, the reason is it is in response to what we found in the aftermath of September 11--specifically, how the 19 terrorists who came into the country and performed their evil deeds actually got here. What we found, through testimony before the committee, was that they had all gotten here legally with visas. When we talked to the people who granted those visas and worked in the system, many of them expressed great sorrow and disappointment that they had granted the visas. But one in particular testified that, of course, she had no choice because she had no information that would have told her she should deny the visa. That one little story is a metaphor for what is in this legislation. If we had provided information to the people who grant visas, that would have raised a red flag, at least with respect to some of these terrorists, that would have caused the consular offices to say, wait a minute, maybe we should not grant this visa.”