Political Quotes

“Mr. President, with 1 day before the funding expires for the Department of Homeland Security, I rise to urge the adoption of a clean funding bill. It seems we are on a path to ensure that, at least in the Senate, we are going to adopt a bill that funds the critical safety and national security functions of the Department of Homeland Security without extraneous immigration riders. I encourage my colleagues in both Chambers to embrace what Members on both sides of the aisle have acknowledged is the best way to resolve this issue--avoid a shutdown, enact the clean bipartisan Homeland Security bill, and address the immigration policies through regular order on the floor. By now, we have all heard from a host of people spelling out the many negative impacts of a shutdown--our colleagues, Secretary Johnson, previous Secretaries, and many of our Nation's mayors. We would be unnecessarily disrupting funding which all of our States' emergency managers rely on and which allows for programs that function to keep us safe and keep people and goods moving securely and efficiently throughout our country. My home State of Hawaii is 2,500 miles from the closest landmass. It hosts the Nation's fourth largest airport for international arrivals and is currently responding to and recovering from presidentially declared disasters related to lava threats and tropical storms.…”