Political Quotes

“Mr. President, in February, I met with the President of the United States along with nine of my colleagues. The objective here was to find middle ground on a targeted COVID relief package focused on vaccine distribution and getting Americans back to work and back to school as quickly as possible. Instead, we have been offered a bloated and wasteful spending bill, only 10 percent of which actually goes toward COVID-related needs. Meanwhile, the COVID-19 crisis has exacerbated America's drug epidemic with synthetic opioids being the primary driver of the 38- percent annual increase in overdose deaths. We know illegal narcotics are coming through our southern border at ports of entry. My unobjectionable amendment simply increases funding for Customs and Border Protection by $300 million for technology to detect fentanyl and other drugs of lower purity levels. This funding is more than offset by reducing funding from a provision granting 600 hours of paid leave to Federal employees--600 hours. That is 15 weeks of paid leave. So if an employee took every day of this paid leave in this bloated spending bill starting today, that would be by June 18. Oh, by the way, we are supposed to all be vaccinated by the end of May, according to the President. The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from Maryland.”