Political Quotes

“Mr. Speaker, the majority party rejected the bipartisan legislation that came from the Senate with 68 votes. That is more than two-thirds of the Senate. Half of the Republicans in the United States Senate passed that bill over to us, and we could have passed it. I know some people said we needed the $1.1 billion, but I will tell you, had you brought that bill to the floor without adding political aspects to it that you knew we would not support, it would have passed. You could have passed it on your own, but you chose to make it a political bill. And we are not going to accept that because the American--you are right, Mr. Speaker, the American people deserve that we deal with this issue now. The President asked for this money on February 22. We are now at September 10, Mr. Speaker, and we have not dealt with this except in a way that, frankly, the majority party knew would not be acceptable, would not be bipartisan, would not pass the Senate, and would not be signed by the President. It is, I say with all due respect, Mr. Majority Leader, not credible to say because we didn't take what you wanted to jam down our throat when we had an agreement--not everybody agreed. I understand some people on my side said, oh, no, 1.1 is not enough, and I frankly don't think it is enough. But it is a very substantial sum that would enable NIH to pursue vaccines and pursue other matters in Puerto Rico and Florida and other places in this Nation to keep our people safe.…”