Joe Lieberman: “I appreciate the way Senator Sarbanes and Senator Mikulski talked about the impulse of the people who are working for…”

“I appreciate the way Senator Sarbanes and Senator Mikulski talked about the impulse of the people who are working for the Federal Government. But the people, the loyal patriotic Americans, does anybody really think in a case of national emergency they are going to be citing subsections of the collective bargaining agreement? They are going to do what any American did. In fact, that is what they did on September 11. I was in a meeting of a group of Federal employees who happened to be from FEMA. They rushed from where they were to the Pentagon. A whole group of them were flown up to New York. They worked long hours. They got very little sleep for days and days. Obviously, the firefighters in New York are unionized. It is a remarkable story. I don't remember the exact number. I talked to a battalion commander of a unit of New York firefighters a couple of weeks ago. He said on September 11, when they heard about the planes hitting the World Trade Center, several hundred firefighters who were off duty just rushed to the scene to help. They weren't thinking about a collective bargaining agreement. They were thinking about America and their duty. These are public servants in the best meaning of the term.”