Political Quotes

“I thank the gentleman for his comments. First of all, I think there is broad agreement that there is, indeed, an emergency, that we need to act, and we need to act as quickly as possible. As the gentleman probably knows because it was reported in the press, we had a leadership meeting with the appropriators yesterday, urging the swiftest action possible. I will tell my friend, to put this in context, the gentleman indicates the system is broken. I would agree with that. I think everybody agrees with it. The Senate tried to fix it in 2013. We have urged for the last 6 years for a bill to be put on the floor on comprehensive immigration reform. While it may not have totally solved this issue, it certainly would have addressed this issue. Notwithstanding that historical perspective and context, it is clear that there is an emergency and that we need to respond. I would hope that my friend would say that we would respond in the sense of the emergency that exists. I think both sides believe that we ought to deploy emergency resources to deal with the emergency. If we can limit it to that, I suggest to my friend, we will have a lot better opportunity to get a consensus. Now, what I am saying is, I frankly think the administration conflates border enforcement and some of the things it wants to do on enforcement and humanitarian relief. If we can pass a bill that is limited to humanitarian relief, I hope that we could pass it as soon as possible, meaning next week.…”