Political Quotes

“Mr. Speaker, I want to thank and congratulate Chairman Levin for his leadership on this issue, and particularly want to thank him for the gesture of reaching out to the minority on this and hope it is a glimpse of things to come. As the chairman indicated, this is one of these areas that clearly all of America comes together on. There are ample examples of where we have done this in the past, obviously with the tsunami back in 2005, and most recently you had members of the Ways and Means Committee that were on the floor together urging us to change the Tax Code to accommodate the relief efforts in Haiti. This also is really worthy of us coming together quickly in this tax season and allowing Americans to make contributions to Chile and, in fact, extending the period of time that they are able to make contributions to Haitian relief efforts, all in the context of completing their 2009 tax returns. Why is this important? It is important because in order to bring rescue and recovery in times of great crisis, it takes more than simply the American Government working. That is important, but it also takes the American public. I had an event in my district, Mr. Speaker, a couple of weeks ago, where we brought together folks to discuss Haitian relief efforts. My recollection is that there was a Red Cross official who was there, and she said a very interesting thing.…”