Political Quotes

“like a lot of my colleagues this week, I have been visited here in Washington by a number of my constituents. We get to hear, first hand, about the lives of the people we represent, about how we can help them or hurt them. As we debated the budget this week, a couple of those meetings really stood out in my mind. When I met with Delaware's League of Local Governments, their top priority was increased funding for public safety and homeland security. These are the mayors and county executives from my State, the public officials closest to the needs of our communities. They came to tell us that they need more cops on the beat, they need more resources and more attention from us here in Washington to deal with the security of the chemical plants in their towns, to name just one important example. As they brought this message to us here in Washington, not just to me but to all of us in the Congress, we were presented with this budget resolution, that cuts 30 percent from the support for first responders, the very fire fighters and police officers that we so often pay lip service to. Lip service is all they get from this budget. I joined with my colleagues in offering an amendment to restore and increase funding for homeland security, in keeping with the message we heard this week from our State and local officials.”