Political Quotes

“I commend my chairman and the ranking member of the Banking Committee for all their hard work. This has been a wonderful bipartisan effort, and I am pleased it is included in the underlying bill. I commend the leadership of Senators Collins and Murray on the underlying bill. I wish to speak about a piece of security that is so critical for us that I will be offering tomorrow, an amendment to provide our first responders with the interoperable communications equipment they need to effectively respond to emergencies. Whether it is port security, rail security, whether it is our local police and firefighters, we know that having radios that can actually talk to each other, actually work to be able to actually communicate with the Department of Homeland Security or the Department of Defense or be able to speak to our armed services is absolutely critical. We also know, in fact, right now that the system is not what it should be. I also want to thank Senators Lieberman, Levin, Schumer, Durbin and Boxer for cosponsoring the amendment that will be offered tomorrow. My amendment would finally give our first responders the resources they needs to be able to quickly communicate and respond to a terrorist attack or other kind of national emergency. It would provide a dedicated source of funding for our communities by creating a 5-year $5 billion grant program for interoperable communications.…”