Political Quotes

“I come to the floor maybe once a month when we are in session to talk about folks who are a part of the team at the Department of Homeland Security. There are about 225,000 of them. What I do every month is pick on a couple of them. We pick on a part of the Department of Homeland Security that maybe doesn't get a lot of attention. Before the Presiding Officer leaves, I just want to say ``Happy Thanksgiving'' to him. Tonight, if I can, in the time that I have, I will start off by--I have been doing this now for 2 years, coming to the floor and talking about people in the Department of Homeland Security who have done amazing things for all of us. If you will recall, the Department of Homeland Security didn't even exist when I first came here in 2001. It was created on the heels of 9/ 11. We took about 22 disparate agencies and glommed them together. They all had something to do with Homeland Security. The Department has struggled at times to try to be a coherent, collegial, productive organization. I think they are hitting their stride, and I am proud of the work they do. There are more than 230,000 employees in the Department of Homeland Security around the country and around the world. They do some of the most difficult and some of the most diverse work that is done in the Federal Government, anything from protecting against cyber attacks--we have plenty of that going on--to helping communities recover from natural disasters.…”