Political Quotes

“Mr. President, I will take about 3 minutes, and I would like to thank my friend from Pennsylvania for being a gentleman and letting me have a few minutes to express myself before he gives his own expression of support for this bill. First of all, I appreciate Senators Toomey and Manchin's interest in this issue. We have worked on this over the months to try to accommodate this legislation and to move it, but the issues are complex. The bill would affect millions of people. Members of the education and civil rights communities and others have raised legitimate concerns that we need to work through. Members on both sides of the HELP Committee--which I am privileged to chair--have expressed hesitation about moving this absent constructive engagement by our committee. Unfortunately, the Senator is asking us to take this bill without any debate or committee consideration. That, again, is a formula for bad legislation because recent steps have been taken by States to do their own background check requirements. For example--I don't know this particularly--Pennsylvania recently enacted legislation to protect kids in school. We need to make sure that whatever we do here does not interfere with what the States themselves are doing. I think probably my colleague Senator Alexander would address himself to that. Again, this is the Child Care and Development Block Grant Act which passed 96 to 2 here in the Senate. In fact, the Senator from Pennsylvania supported the bill.…”