Political Quotes

“Madam President, I rise today out of a desire to protect the rights and the health of the young men and women who serve the Senate as pages. I think we could all agree that the Senate wouldn't function well without pages. The very first Senate page was a 9-year-old boy named Grafton Hanson. He was appointed by Daniel Webster in 1829. In those days, the pages' jobs were to refill the inkwells and clean out spittoons. Fortunately, things have improved a bit for the pages. The work isn't quite as messy anymore, but it is still a high-pressure job for a high school student. When I was here on the floor voting last week, I noticed that the pages were all wearing masks, but none of my colleagues were. I threatened to come to the floor to seek unanimous consent to end the mask mandate, and the next day, the mandate ended. Coincidence? Perhaps. The new policy states, though, that the mask-wearing will become optional for pages who test negative. But once again, we see the masks on the floor. I urge my colleagues to look around. The pages are still wearing masks. The COVID policy for the Senate pages requires the reinstitution of a mask mandate if they have supposedly been exposed. Apparently, there are rules for the pages of the Senate, but not for the President of the Senate, Kamala Harris.…”