Political Quotes

“Thank you, Mr. President. I join my colleague, Senator McCaskill from Missouri, in her comments about the Central States Pension Fund. We have over 14,000 workers and retirees in our State affected by this as well. But I really stand here today to thank Senator Manchin for his work and to thank our leaders, Senator McConnell and Senator Schumer, as well as Chairman Cochran and Vice Chairman Leahy for their ability to put partisanship aside and get this deal done. It meant everything from funding for the COPS Program to helping to combat the opioid epidemic, Capital Investment Grants, and medical research. But for one guy here, it was all personal, and that is Joe Manchin. He fought long and hard to protect healthcare benefits for his coal miners. Think about this: In October, 12,500 retired coal miners and widows received notices telling them that their healthcare benefits would be cut off at the end of the year. Then, in November, another 3,600 notices went out. That is over 16,000 people. I don't have coal miners in my State, but do you know why I knew about those notices? Because Joe Manchin made sure that I knew about those notices and because the other Senators who spoke here, who have coal miners in their States--they stood up and made sure we knew about those notices, and they worked tirelessly to get this done. For me, mining is not about that black coal dust. It is about red dust. It is about iron ore.…”