Political Quotes

“I want to say how proud I am of the Environment and Public Works Committee. To be chairman of the committee that has such incredible Senators, such as those you have heard from--Senator Sanders, Senator Whitehouse; we also have Senator Cardin, Senator Carper, Senator Baucus, Senator Gillibrand, Senator Merkley, and Senator Lautenberg. I hope I am not leaving anyone out. These are the environmental voices, the commonsense voices for jobs, for clean technology, for a bright future for our Nation, so to be the chairman of that committee is an honor beyond my every expectation. It is not to say we don't work with Republicans; we do on public works matters. We work very well with Senator Inhofe and his team of Republicans on public works, but when it comes to the environment, there is nobody home over there. As a matter of fact, they do harm. Today I am going to talk about the need to create jobs through this sector, but I also want to say, while my colleagues are here, an interesting development that has happened on the payroll tax cut bill that the House is about to pass. We have a kind of inside-the-Beltway term when extraneous provisions are added to a bill that will bring down the bill, and we call that a poison pill amendment. I have never said to you when I coined that phrase ``poison pill'' amendment that it is literal.…”