Political Quotes

“Mr. President, just as the Senator from California has outlined the needs of her State, having been hit by a natural disaster, so, too, natural disasters, not wildfires--although we have had plenty in Florida--but hurricanes have hit other States. Yesterday, this Senator spoke at length about the effects on a particular industry, the citrus industry. I showed pictures of 75 percent to 90 percent of the fruit on the ground. This Senator made a unanimous consent request to include a bipartisan amendment to get money for agriculture, not just in Florida but Texas, Puerto Rico, the Virgin Islands, and the wildfires in California into the package-- specifically, about $3 billion for agriculture. The losses in Florida's agriculture are $2.5 billion, of which three-fourths of a billion is just losses to citrus growers. That is all the bad news because the unanimous consent request was rejected. The good news is, although the White House rejected it, they made a promise to put it in a continuing supplemental emergency appropriations in November for all these natural disasters and get that funding in there for agriculture. Some of us on both sides of this aisle, in order to make sure that promise is kept, have put a hold on the nominee for Deputy Budget Director. I will take the White House at its word, and this ought to all be worked out in November.…”