Political Quotes

“reserving the right to object, I have real concerns my colleagues' efforts to subvert the legislative process and push through a bill without due consideration from the Senate Foreign Relations Committee. I know my distinguished colleague from Florida is very interested in these issues. I hope he would ask his leadership to put him on the committee because he consistently comes to the floor and wants to circumvent the committee. This is not the first time. Let me be very clear: Hamas is a terrorist organization, and the terrorists who lead Hamas have no regard for human life, whether they be the life of innocent Israelis targeted by their rocket attacks or the Palestinian families they constantly put in harm's way. Israel has every right and responsibility to defend herself from attacks against their civilians, and the United States does not, and will not, ever provide funding to Hamas. Neither of those statements are up for debate. In fact, I would argue that every single Member of this body agrees with those assertions. Indeed, the Senate has a long history of carefully crafting foreign aid programs with robust oversight, as well as sanctions that target Hamas and its supporters. With that in mind, there is simply no reason this bill can't go through regular order and sustain a markup in the Foreign Relations Committee. I looked at the dates of introduction and then its subsequent referrals--less than 3 weeks.…”