Political Quotes

“Mr. President, fellow Senators, today, in a few moments, we are going to consider S.J. Res. 20, which is a joint resolution that it prohibits the sales of munitions to Bahrain. Actually, we are going to consider a motion to discharge, and the same is true of S.J. Res. 26, which is a joint resolution that prohibits the issuance of a letter of offer with respect to the proposed sale to Qatar of 24 helicopters. I strongly urge my colleagues to consider these sales on their own merits and to avoid conflating these with unrelated controversies over the administration's recent emergency declarations. They are not related. They are different matters. These sales--the two that we are talking about regarding Bahrain and Qatar--address the legitimate security interests of both countries and strengthen the U.S. partnerships with both countries and support shared efforts to deter Iran. Congress should support these sales. The news this morning of attacks on two more civilian oil tankers in the Gulf of Oman lend further weight to the conclusion that our allies and partners in the region need greater capabilities to share the burden of defense in support of our mutual security interests. The State Department notified these sales in the standard process, and the chairs and ranking members of both House and Senate committees approved them last month. The sale to Qatar is not related to the activities of the Saudi-led coalition in Yemen.…”