Political Quotes

“Madam President, I am delighted that the Senate will pass a bipartisan bill to resolve a serious problem confronting the American traveling public and our economy. I thank the majority leader, Senator Reid, the minority leader, the Republican leader, Senator McConnell, and all the staff who have worked so hard to make this happen. I am very pleased to be joined in sponsoring this bill by many of our colleagues, including Senator Rockefeller, Senator Thune, Senator Mark Udall, Senator Risch, Senator Roberts, Senator Isakson, Senator McCaskill, Senator Hagan, the Presiding Officer, Senator Toomey, Senator Chambliss, Senator Murkowski, Senator Warner, Senator Begich, Senator Nelson, and Senator Heller. As the ranking member of the Appropriations Transportation Subcommittee, I have been very concerned about the serious delays that have been caused by the FAA furloughs of air traffic controllers. In fact, Secretary of Transportation LaHood and FAA Administrator Huerta met with me this morning to discuss this problem and our proposed solution. The Collins-Rockefeller-Thune-Udall bill would restore the funding for these essential air traffic controller positions, and that should prevent the onerous delays that were occurring and were only going to get worse as the traveling season reached its peak this summer. That would have had a ripple effect throughout the hospitality industry in particular and caused job losses that we can ill afford.…”