Political Quotes

“I wish to say a few words about the Homeland Security appropriations bill--one of the nine we approved this morning. I was proud to work with my ranking member, the Senator from Indiana, Mr. Dan Coats. I am very proud to work with the Senator from New Jersey, Frank Lautenberg, who serves as honorary vice chair of the committee because of his seniority and expertise in this area. I wanted to put into the Record some facts about the bill. This bill has been openly and publicly debated for almost 1 year. There are some very important components of the bill that I think are of great interest to the people we serve. First, the bill totals, for 2012, $39.858 billion, slightly below $40 billion. It is not one of the largest in our government, but it is neither the smallest. It is sort of in the midrange of departments, but it is a very important department--one just created, as you know, in the aftermath and the heartbreak of 9/11. It is a department that has had tremendous success in the 10 years but with a lot of growing pains. They had a lot of difficulty getting their feet underneath them and bringing in agencies from around the government to provide the frontline of defense against attacks to our homeland.…”