Political Quotes

“Mr. President, I rise today to speak on the government funding agreement announced last night. I greatly appreciate the work of Senator Shelby, Senator Leahy, and the Appropriations Committee in their efforts to reach a bipartisan agreement. I appreciate the efforts of Senator McConnell, Senator Schumer, and our House counterparts, as well, to reach an agreement. I am glad we will avert another government shutdown and also make critical investments in several areas that are important to my home State of Minnesota; however, there is an important piece of unfinished business that wasn't included in the agreement, and that is to provide backpay for the employees of Federal contractors who were forced out of work for more than a month during the shutdown. During the longest Federal shutdown in history, thousands of Americans who serve as contractors to the Federal Government lost over a month's pay through no fault of their own, and these are people who work as security guards and clean office buildings, and they work shoulder to shoulder with Federal employees for all of us. Unfortunately, and this is important, while Federal employees have received backpay--a bill this Chamber passed unanimously--their contractor counterparts have been left out in the cold with no backpay. I have introduced legislation, which has bipartisan support, which would right this wrong, and it should have been included in the final budget deal, but it appears that the White House blocked it.…”