Political Quotes

“thank you for your remarks on the floor earlier this afternoon. I rise to have the Senate consider and to have a conversation about S. 140, a package of three bills that will have positive benefits on Indian Country. Two bills in the package--the Senator from Arizona was talking about one of them. Two bills in this package, S. 140, the White Mountain Apache Water Rights Quantification Act, sponsored by Senators Flake and McCain, and S. 249, a bill to provide that the Pueblo of Santa Clara may lease for 99 years certain restricted land, sponsored by Senators Udall and Heinrich of New Mexico, have already received unanimous consent from the Senate. The third bill in the package, the Tribal Labor Sovereignty Act, was attached as a message from the House to S. 140 in January. I am the sponsor of this legislation in the Senate, which should be noncontroversial in a chamber where Members of the Senate profess to be supportive of Tribal sovereignty. This concept has been around since 2005, and I became interested in this topic and introduced legislation in 2013--now 5 years ago. I suppose all of us, from time to time, may introduce legislation that is a messaging point or a talking point. In this and in most every other case, when I introduce legislation I work hard to see that it becomes law. I work in a bipartisan way to bring Republicans and Democrats together and for rural and urban Members of the Senate to work together. This is an example of that.…”