Political Quotes

“Thank you, Mr. President. First, let me say to my friend from Alabama, I couldn't agree more that we need to focus on jobs. There is no question about it. I couldn't agree more that we need to have a legal immigration system that works and that protects Americans first, in terms of jobs, people who are here legally, whether it is those working in agriculture, whether it is those working in manufacturing or any other part of our economy. We can very quickly, if the new majority wants to, bring an immigration bill and address it. I think there are 68 of us, if I remember right, who voted for a pretty big bipartisan effort last year, a major effort to actually fix a very broken system. There were important protections in there for American workers. It is something that would have been incredibly important to get done and to put those prohibitions in. So this is not about that. It is very simple. The majority could very quickly pass the funding for Homeland Security to keep us safe and immediately go to the issue of immigration, and I would support it wholeheartedly, as would colleagues on this side of the aisle. Here is what we don't support: holding the security of our country hostage while others debate policy, frankly, that was already agreed to by the majority of the Senate last year.…”