Political Quotes

“Madam President, I rise to urge my colleagues to pass a clean appropriations bill that funds the Department of Homeland Security, DHS. Listening to my friend the Senator from Utah, it is very clear that the Republicans' position on this bill that is before us today is totally dependent on their assertion that the President's recent actions on immigration are illegal. Democrats do not concur with that. In fact, I thought illegality of any actions should be determined by courts of law. What the President did recently is no different from like Presidential actions taken by Presidents Reagan and Bush, I might add. So we must fund DHS and resist the temptation to govern though manufactured crises and political games. Our national security is at stake. Surely my colleagues remember when DHS was created in direct response to the terrorist attacks on September 11, 2001. Just 11 days after 9/ 11, DHS started to take shape. President George W. Bush named Gov. Tom Ridge to lead an office to oversee and coordinate a comprehensive and national strategy to safeguard our country against terrorism and respond to any future attacks. DHS's mission is to protect our homeland, as its name makes perfectly clear. DHS is responsible for border security and immigration enforcement. It is tasked with keeping our airports safe through TSA, with emergency management response through FEMA, and protecting our coasts through the Coast Guard.…”