Political Quotes

“Thank you, Mr. Chairman, for yielding the time. But more than that, thank you for persistent, vigorous and insightful and creative leadership you've given to the entire reauthorization of FAA, but especially to this particular safety issue. You've given your heart, your soul, your time, your energy; and we're now at a point of making an extraordinary difference in the history of aviation safety. Our Constitution has a unique provision, unlike that in any other constitution I'm aware of. It prescribes the right of the citizens to petition their government for redress of grievances. The families of the victims of the Colgan Continental express flight that crashed February 12 of last year have exercised that right with vigor, with persistence, with highmindedness. They know, as the families of all the victims of transportation tragedies, that they can't bring back the lives of those they loved, but they can do something to make sure it won't happen again to others. I've seen the tears in their eyes that reflect the pain in their hearts. I've experienced their determination never to give up. I've also stood at the site of the grim tragedy of the Mesaba Airlines commuter crash, only 6 miles from my home in Chisholm, Minnesota; the flight path toward the Chisholm Hibbing Airport in December 1993, where 19 people lost their lives because that aircraft didn't have a ground proximity warning system.”