Political Quotes

“Mr. President, I rise today to urge my colleagues to pass a clean Homeland Security funding bill for fiscal year 2015. This is an issue of national security, and we cannot allow politics to divert attention from our responsibility as Senators. The majority in the House sent the Senate a bill with five poison pills that they know will prevent the passage of this legislation. Yesterday and again today, my Senate colleagues and I sent a clear message that these politically divisive immigration provisions have no place in this bill. I urge my colleagues to dispense with any further delays and allow for an up-or-down vote on the bill as originally drafted. The Department of Homeland Security funding bill--created in the wake of 9/11, as Senator Durbin reminded us earlier--is not the place to litigate immigration policy; rather, those issues are appropriately addressed in a comprehensive immigration bill, and I hope the House will draft and vote on that type of legislation soon. The recent executions of the Japanese and Jordanian hostages by the terrorist group ISIL and the attacks in Paris, Ottawa, and Australia serve as reminders of the very real threat we face. Each day we delay in providing adequate, reliable resources to the Department of Homeland Security, we undermine the Department's efforts to defend the home front. That is why I am calling on my colleagues to take up and pass a clean bill.…”