Political Quotes

“Madam Chair, to my colleagues on the other side of the aisle and on the same side of the aisle, I rise today to do two things. One is to thank the American people, thank Congress, and thank two Presidents for the assistance that they gave to the gulf coast after Hurricanes Katrina and Rita, and even after the BP oil spill. But at the same time, I rise because just in the last 2 months, President Obama has issued 27 disaster and emergency declarations across 18 States. And the fact that this Congress and the last Congress was able to help the citizens of the gulf coast gave great comfort to Americans to know that this government would not let them fend for themselves when a natural disaster hits. However, under the policies of this Congress, we have decided that any disaster assistance would require a pay-for. That would leave a large number of our American taxpaying citizens out to fend for themselves when they simply cannot do it. So when we look at the tornadoes and we look at the flooding that has occurred in the last 2 months--and we are talking about States like Minnesota, Tennessee, Arkansas, Georgia, Missouri, Mississippi, Louisiana--I think it should be the policy of this body that we are going to be wherever our citizens need us. If you look at the fund which FEMA uses to pay for disaster response recovery and mitigation projects, it is facing a $1 billion shortfall this fiscal year. If you look at the entire hole, the hole is much bigger.…”