Political Quotes

“I thank the ranking member for yielding to me. I also congratulate him for his position, which his peers have appointed him to. And I congratulate Chairman Thompson for being chosen to hold such a very important chairmanship. Mr. Speaker, let me talk about my strong support of H.R. 251. I urge all of my colleagues to support this. Last week, every Member of Congress swore an oath to defend the United States. That, Mr. Speaker, is what we are here on the floor to do with this bill. In 10 days, as you have heard, the CFATS--Chemical Facility Anti- Terrorism Standards--program will sunset. This means that everything about it, right down to its fundamental structure, legally disappears, including Federal outreach and networking to prevent terrorism against chemical facilities. I know that there are those who question the value of the current Chemical Facility Anti-terrorism Standards program. But they should know that today's CFATS program is vastly improved from where it was a mere 4 years ago. How do I know this? How can I be so sure? Prior to this Congress, I served since 2011 as the chairman of the Energy and Commerce Subcommittee on Environment with my colleague, Mr. Tonko, who I am sure, will be speaking on this bill. There, we had six hearings on the CFATS program and its operations, the most recent one 6 months ago.…”