Political Quotes

“It is now day 12, 12 days since Congress recessed without taking action on the disaster supplemental appropriations bill. It is the sixth week since an absolutely devastating flood, a flood of 1,000-year proportion, hit Grand Forks and inundated North Dakota's second largest city, a city of 50,000 people. One of the things that as we saw the footage broadcast throughout this country and, in fact, across the world, as you looked at literally a city steeped in the Red River water, it was a horrible visage. But one of the things that I think we perhaps could not fully appreciate as we watched that horrible site and saw the fires ravaging the downtown in the middle of this floodwater is the extent of damage occurring in each and every structure that had that floodwater in it. During the 12 days since Congress recessed I spent a good deal of that time in Grand Forks. The stories that I heard directly from the people impacted from this flood were among the most moving I have heard from anyone. What I believe Congress failed to realize as it recessed and went home without taking action was that it left literally thousands of people in the area I represent utterly in limbo.”