Political Quotes

“Mr. Chairman, I rise today in support of the Castor amendment to safeguard the local government security funds that come from the Presidential Election Campaign Fund. I know a lot of the debate has been focused on public campaign financing of Presidential campaigns, but another important portion of that fund goes to local communities to help them with local security and local law enforcement costs when they host a political party convention. And we're very proud in my hometown of Tampa to be the host of the 2012 Republican convention. It's no wonder that the Republicans selected Tampa; it's a wonderful place. We have beautiful beaches. We need the business and the jobs. So we're going to be a very welcoming community. We do conventions very well. And we're very happy that we're going to play host to the Republican convention. But here are great warning flags going off because what I hear from my local law enforcement community is that the security costs, especially in the post-9/11 world, are very daunting. They are very concerned with the cost of providing security for the Republican convention, just like, I think, any host community would be for any party convention. So what this amendment does is it says that, rather than completely do away with this fund, we will retain the portion that will cover local law enforcement security costs. We're going to need this help.…”