Political Quotes

“it is my honor now to rise as chairman of the Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee to speak on behalf of S. 679, the Presidential Appointment Efficiency and Streamlining Act of 2011, and I do so with great gratitude toward Senator Alexander, who is now on the Senate floor, Senator Schumer, and others who worked together to clear away procedural obstacles to focus on this piece of legislation. This is a noble effort that has been tried before and failed, but I am confident this time, with the support of our leaders--really our bipartisan leadership, Senator Reid, Senator McConnell, Senator Alexander, Senator Schumer, not to mention Senator Collins and me--we are going to, in our committee role, get this passed. This is a bipartisan effort to solve a problem, or at least help solve part of a problem, that has been growing for a long time in Washington in our government--certainly since the Kennedy administration--which is, it takes too long for an incoming President and a sitting President to get their team in place, and there are too many vacancies throughout the course of an administration, as I will indicate during my remarks. The average is 25 percent, one-quarter of the positions in the administration, are empty at any one time because of the length of the process, the delays that occur in the executive branch, the White House, and in the Senate, and this is a direct attempt to try to lessen that problem.…”