Political Quotes

“I rise in support of S. 1228, which includes the language of H.R. 2414, the bill to implement a program to issue quarter dollars over a 10-year period commemorating each of the 50 States. This bill has passed this House in each of the last two Congresses, most recently on September 23, 1997, where it passed on a rollcall vote of 419-6. S. 1228 passed the Senate by unanimous consent last Sunday night, and it has been amended to include language redesigning the $1 coin. This redesign would correct the flaws of the Susan B. Anthony coin by specifying that the new coin be gold in color and have a distinctive edge to distinguish it from the quarter. A difference from the bill that I introduced, H.R. 2637, is that S. 1228 does not specify what image will appear on the $1 coin. Instead, that decision is left to the Secretary of the Treasury. My bill would have had the Statue of Liberty as the image of the face of the coin, gold, smooth edge, Statue of Liberty on the face of the coin, but we are going to leave that decision up, as I said, to the Secretary of the Treasury. I would also at this time like to thank Senator Alphonse D'Amato, the chairman of the Senate Banking Committee, who was extremely cooperative throughout all of this and was very helpful in bringing all of this legislation to fruition.”