Political Quotes

“Mr. President, many, many thanks to the leader for his kind remarks. The final bill was negotiated by the big four--the two leaders in the Senate and the two leaders in the House. It was not going to happen this way unless the leaders all agreed, so my profound thanks on behalf of the explorers and the adventurers of the United States--the ``can do'' little agency, NASA, that is now on its way to Mars. On behalf of all of the NASA family, I thank the leaders and especially the Democratic leader. A personal thanks for his very kind comments. Mr. President, we have approached the NASA bill in a bipartisan way. As a matter of fact, I give great credit to both the chairs and the ranking members on the House Science, Space, and Technology Committee, as well as on the subcommittee on appropriations in the House that handles NASA appropriations. All of those leaders were absolutely key. Of course, the same thing is true here in the Senate. As the ranking member, I have the privilege of sharing the leadership with our chairman, John Thune, on the Commerce, Science, and Transportation Committee. It is that subcommittee's chairman and ranking member, as well as the chairman and ranking member from the subcommittee on the Appropriations Committee, from whom we will hear momentarily--to all of them, I am very grateful. What it says is that NASA--America's civilian space program--should not be a partisan subject. What it says is that the leaders of NASA should not be partisans.…”