Political Quotes

“Madam President, for me, being a miner's son, having worked in the mines myself, these reports out of West Virginia and Kentucky are very troubling. Mining is a very dangerous occupation. I know that personally as a result of my dad having been ``blasted'' as we called it, and reflecting back on my childhood friend, Stan Hudgens, whose father was working in the blossom with my dad and a rock dropped on his head and killed him. My dad brought him out of the mine. So these reports out of the coal mines are troubling. I agree with my distinguished friend that we have to make sure that we act--not do anything harmful to the industry because it is a very important industry. Mining is the No. 2 industry in Nevada. It is not coal mining. And a lot of our mining now in Nevada is open pit, but not all of it is. We have a lot of underground mines too. The same with coal mining; coal mining is what we refer to as the hard rock business. It is open pit mining, but they have a significant amount of underground mining also. So I look forward to working with my friend, the Republican leader, and all of those who want to make mines safer and protect this most important industry. ____________________”