Political Quotes

“as difficult as this was for us to get to the point where we are now, it is not as if the Senator from Kentucky and the task force just made all this stuff up. Because of 9/11, we created a Department of Homeland Security. We now have a Cabinet-level Secretary of Homeland Security--a former Congressman and Governor--Tom Ridge. There is a Department of Homeland Security, I repeat, of Cabinet status, and because of legislation we passed previously, it has certain obligations within the executive branch of Government. So we had a guideline to follow because that is what Secretary Ridge has been doing in that Department of Homeland Security. One of the guidelines we had was to try to track that with what will be the organizational prerogatives of the Senate. I believe we have done a pretty good job doing that. As the Senator from Kentucky mentioned, if people think they want to improve upon what we have done, what they need to do is offer an amendment and the body will decide whether that is the right way to do it. Also, the two leaders have said we are going to finish our work before we leave for the recess prior to the election. That means we are not going to wait around here all day for someone who has a lunch or meeting in their office or a committee hearing. If we go for a period of a half hour, 45 minutes here--and that is an arbitrary number I throw out--and nobody shows up, we are going to move to third reading.”