Political Quotes

“as I indicated, my amendment is a sense of the Senate that insists that the conference report for the Omnibus Appropriations Act retain the Senate provisions that repeal the special interest vaccine component provisions that were originally included in the Homeland Security Act. The purpose of this amendment is to send a very strong message to the Senate conferees who will represent our interests in the conference, and to the House, that we stand firmly behind the repeal of the vaccine component provisions that were contained in last year's Homeland Security Act. We need a strong show of support in favor of this amendment to demonstrate our commitment to public interest over special interests. We also need to ensure that the conference report of this bill maintains a full repeal of that language. Anything less is absolutely unacceptable. Last November, Speaker Hastert and Representative DeLay gave only vague assurances they would strike the special interest provisions from the Homeland Security Act, and since then I have seen signs that their commitment to this process may have continued to slip, and we certainly do not wish that to happen after the hard work of putting this language into the bill.”