Political Quotes

“Madam Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume. Madam Speaker, this bill would establish a new task force led by the National Marine Fisheries Service to identify shark conservation needs and depredation research. That is fine. Before getting into that, I want to point out that the suspensions today are supposed to reflect some of the bipartisan work of the Committee on Natural Resources to find common ground and move bills that had process last Congress. This legislation should certainly be one of those, but committee Republicans blocked an accompanying bill, Representative Keating's Sea Turtle Rescue and Rehabilitation Act. We should be voting on that bill today, and we are not. Last year's hurricanes and floods damaged key sea turtle rescue and rehabilitation facilities, forcing them to lose money and space that would otherwise go toward recovering stranded turtles. Representative Keating's legislation would help support these facilities as they care for Endangered Species Act-listed sea turtles. The Committee on Natural Resources and the Senate Commerce Committee secured a deal in December to move that bill, along with this SHARKED Act and two other bills. Unfortunately, unelected billionaire Musk's last-minute power play on the CR scuttled that modest package, and here we are. It is disappointing that our colleagues on the other side of the aisle have decided to forgo those bipartisan commitments and move this legislation as a standalone.…”