Political Quotes

“I come to the floor as the ranking member of the Appropriations Committee, and I come to ask my colleagues to bring to the floor and pass a clean Homeland Security appropriations bill for fiscal year 2015. This isn't just Senator Barb Mikulski calling for this but also the former heads of Homeland Security under President Bush and also under President Obama. The very first head of that agency, Gov. Tom Ridge, along with Mr. Chertoff and Janet Napolitano, have written to Harry Reid and Mitch McConnell and said: Please, as former Secretaries of Homeland Security, we write to you today to respectfully request that you consider decoupling critical legislation to fund the Department of Homeland Security for fiscal year 2015 from a legislative response to President Obama's actions on immigration. They feel that: . . . by tethering a bill to fund DHS in FY 2015 to a legislative response to the President's executive actions on immigration . . . --it could lead to a shutdown of Homeland Security. We don't want a shutdown. I won't go through the entire letter. They conclude with: It is imperative that we ensure that DHS is ready, willing, and able to protect the American people. To that end, we urge you not to risk the funding for the operations that protect every American and to pass a clean DHS funding bill. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the letter be printed in the Record.…”