Political Quotes

“Mr. President, once again, Congress has responded at the last possible moment to a dire issue--in this case, the debt crisis in Puerto Rico. Friday, July 1, is a critical deadline for the island Commonwealth, the date when Puerto Rico must repay $1.9 billion in debt service that it has repeatedly stated that it is unable to pay. If we had failed to act, over 3.5 million Americans would have faced an economic and humanitarian crisis. The Commonwealth government has stated that, even after clawing back revenues from other parts of the public sector like education, health, and public safety, it will not have sufficient resources to meet the entire debt service obligation due on July 1. That is just a few short days from now. On January 27 of this year, I joined 44 of my colleagues in the Senate to urge Majority Leader McConnell to work with us and swiftly enact legislation to give Puerto Rico access to the tools it needs to address the debt crisis. Over 150 days later, the Senate is only just beginning to act. This Congress has dragged its feet on important issues, waiting until we are right up against dangerous deadlines to take critical action. Puerto Rico is just one example; funding to fight Zika is another. We saw these problems on the horizon long ago; yet the majority allowed the problem to build, permitted the crisis to grow, waited until the last minute, and, in doing so, restricted the Senate's opportunity to act.…”