Political Quotes

“First, I am grateful for the indulgence of our colleague on the committee, our ranking member and senior Republican, Mr. Mica, for responding so quickly to the action of the other body. We are unaccustomed to such prompt unanimous action in the other body, but they did pass, by unanimous consent, the bill before us now, S. 3473, in response to requests of the Department of Homeland Security, Secretary Napolitano, and Admiral Thad Allen, the National Incident Commander, following up on the May 12 request of the administration for legislative changes to, quote, ``speed assistance to people in need,'' close quote, in response to the BP-Deepwater Horizon tragedy. The request further asks the Congress to, quote, ``act immediately on return from recess,'' close quote. And that is exactly what we are doing, but preceded by a hearing the committee held yesterday on the many aspects of the Oil Spill Liability Trust Fund and payment from responsible parties and the need for future legislation. And the gentleman from Florida had several instructive and thoughtful suggestions that we in the committee will be acting upon per our previous agreement. I want to lay out the specifics. First of all, the request: Quoting again from the Homeland Security Department letter, ``Congress needs to act now to permit movement of moneys from the principal fund to the emergency fund.…”