Political Quotes

“I thank the gentleman for yielding. I rise for two reasons. First of all, I want to express my agreement with Mr. Moran and with members of the committee--perhaps on both sides of the aisle--with respect to our continuing Guantanamo policy. Guantanamo Bay continues to weaken, in my view, America's standing at a time when we need every tool necessary to protect America's interests around the world, which include promoting democracy and the rule of law. Our courts, in my view, are more than capable of trying and convicting even the most hardened terrorists--and have shown themselves fully able to do so. Civilian courts have convicted 533 individuals on terrorism charges, compared to eight convictions in military commissions; yet on the floor of this House, we continue to deal with this issue as if, somehow, it is keeping Americans safer. At the same time, it undermines American values. That is not a good policy. Hundreds of terrorists are being held securely in maximum security prisons here in the U.S. I won't list them, but I will include them in the Record at a later time. Keeping these detainees at Guantanamo makes no financial sense. One of my Republican colleagues mentioned a cost of $500,000 per year, per detainee. At a time when we want to be efficient and effective in our use of resources, that seems not to be either. I now want to speak to a broader issue that concerns me that we have not dealt with in this bill and we did not deal with in the authorization bill.…”