Political Quotes

“I would echo what our chairman, Senator Thune, has said about Elaine Chao. She certainly has the qualifications to be our next Secretary of Transportation. Clearly, she is a part of the Senate family; as the spouse of the majority leader, we know her well--and her government experience as the previous Secretary of Labor and Deputy Secretary of Transportation. The Office of Government Ethics, which is the independent agency that vets the nominees, has certified that she is in compliance with all the laws and regulations governing conflicts of interest. This Senator intends to vote for her confirmation, as I did in the committee. Since the Senator from Arkansas, in his objection to the unanimous consent request of the Democratic leader, made note of the absence of Democratic members from the Finance Committee markup of a couple of the Cabinet nominees, I want to bring to the attention of my colleagues that indeed, there was new information that came to light overnight in a publication in the Wall Street Journal of additional information about the nominee for the Department of HHS, which needs to be cleared up before the committee proceeds. So I wanted to put that on the record and make clear one of the reasons that the Finance Committee members objected to proceeding.…”