Political Quotes

“Madam President, at every confirmation hearing of every Cabinet position, and probably a lot of other positions as well, a Cabinet nominee is invariable asked a question similar to this: Will you come when you are called to a committee meeting for a hearing, and will you answer inquiries made by members of the committee to certain questions you might be asked? Invariably--and I don't know an exception to this--we get the answer that, yes, they will respond to our communiques. Well, I come to the Senate today to ask why Secretary Napolitano of the Department of Homeland Security hasn't answered inquiries we have made that ought to have been answered by now. And the answers ought to have been made by now because we are dealing with the legislation to which the questions refer. On April 23, the Judiciary Committee held a hearing to discuss immigration reform and the bill presented by the Gang of 8. Secretary Napolitano was the only witness. The hearing lasted 2 hours and 20 minutes, and most members were able to ask her 5 to 10 minutes' worth of questions. We also submitted questions for the record, which means we submitted questions to her in writing for her to answer. Committee members were given just 24 hours to turn around those questions to present to her. But it has been over 7 weeks--that is more than 49 days--since we submitted those questions to Secretary Napolitano, and we have yet to get answers to those questions.…”