Political Quotes

“Mr. President, I rise in opposition today to the nomination of Peter Wright to serve as the Assistant Administrator for EPA's Office of Land and Emergency Management. I take little joy in opposing the nomination but do so for three reasons. Before I say those three reasons--I stood on this floor right up until the end of the last Congress, trying to get Peter Wright confirmed with a unanimous consent approach, and we failed at the very end. The irony of it is, having stood here and tried to get him confirmed at the end of the last Congress and today being in a position in which I am asking for us to postpone, at least for today, his nomination-- there is an irony there, and I don't have the time to go into all of the reasons, but I will mention a few of them. In the last Congress, I worked with the EPA to negotiate a set of significant policy concessions that I believe would have allowed the Senate minority to agree to a more expeditious confirmation process for Mr. Wright. I worked diligently until the closing of the last Congress--right until the bitter end, if you will--to achieve that objective, as I have done in good faith for other EPA nominees. In fact, the very last nominee confirmed in the last Congress was an EPA nominee to head the Agency's Tribal Office, Chad McIntosh. My staff and I and others were very much involved in getting him confirmed. In this Congress, EPA has refused to reengage with my office, with our committee staff, or with me on this nomination.…”