Political Quotes

“Mr. President, I rise to speak about an amendment that I look forward to advancing as a member of the relevant Appropriations subcommittee--in fact, the ranking Democrat. I was pleased to work in a bipartisan way to secure $380 million in the last fiscal year that has been distributed to the States to secure our elections. As you may have heard, some who opposed this in the Appropriations Committee, when we took it up and debated it, asked a few simple questions, which I will try to address quickly. Aren't elections a State and local responsibility? Why should the Federal government be providing funding for States and localities to secure their elections? It is true that elections are overwhelmingly run at the State and local levels. The cost of securing and modernizing our voting machines and voting systems will be overwhelmingly borne at the State and local levels. Second, this $380 million was just made available, and I don't think it has even gone out yet. Have they used it well, and have they used it properly? Third, why is this something we need to do now? Is there any indication that our upcoming elections are actually under threat? Let me briefly speak to those three questions. This morning, it was publicly reported that the U.S.…”