Political Quotes

“I know Senator Collins and Senator Murray are leaving to go to the DOD to meet with Secretary Hagel, and we both look forward to their return this afternoon, but I want to acknowledge the great role they played in putting together the appropriations and transportation funding for the entire United States of America, as well as the Department of Housing and Urban Development. We are going to talk more about transportation because it literally keeps America rolling, whether it is the kinds of problems we solved with the issues around safety, congestion--they are absolutely crucial. But also what they talked about in their bill is housing and urban development and how--it is also the famous HUD bill--it does not only do urban development. I know the Presiding Officer is from the State of North Dakota, whose terrain and challenges are very different than my State, a coastal State. But the Presiding Officer would be interested to know--because she has been hit by some bad weather--that when Hurricane Sandy hit, my State was hit by two things: a hurricane--a hurricane on my Eastern Shore, in which a whole town was underwater and literally people had to be rescued by Zodiacs, by boats, and so on. Then out in western Maryland, our mountain counties, people were hit by a blizzard. It was so bad that regular snowplows, local government, and the private sector weren't working.…”