Political Quotes

“I thank the Chair. Why are we here today? Because the tobacco company lobbyists, at the last minute, in our tax bill, which we considered several weeks ago, managed to sneak in a provision that was not debated on the floor of the Senate, nor on the floor of the House. It was never brought to public light. It wasn't discussed by the leadership, by anyone. And this provision, which is 46 words at the end of the tax bill--a provision which they hoped no one would notice--gave to the tobacco companies a $50 billion setoff against any tobacco settlement. The tobacco companies that came to us and said, ``We have learned our lesson, we are a new industry, we are sensitive to the public health problems we have created,'' managed to sneak in in the dead of night and put in this provision, which gave them a $50 billion setoff. Outrageous. When it was discovered and when we went about Capitol Hill, from office to office, saying, ``All right, who is going to claim pride of authorship here?'' Not a soul would admit they authored this provision. After weeks of investigation, finally, a staff member came forward and said to the USA Today that it was prepared, word for word, by the tobacco companies. They put this provision in the law. They put it at the tail end of this bill, and the leadership on Capitol Hill looked the other way, at best. As a result, this $50 billion outrage is now in the law. Senator Collins of Maine and I have offered an amendment to repeal that.”