Political Quotes

“I say to my dear friend, the senior Senator from Alabama, I agree that we need to make sure that money goes to the people who need it. That is what we are trying to do. We have not had the ability to bring Katrina amendments to the floor and act on them. That is what we need to do. It is not as if we were working in a vacuum. We have a model we know works. After 9/11, we worked in a bipartisan fashion and created legislation that was unique. But most important to the families of the 3,000-plus people who got killed, plus the fact there were billions of dollars in damages, we did $20 billion worth within a matter of days to get relief to the people of New York, the people of Virginia. So we know how to effectively address issues of concern. We have done that in the past. We relied then on committees to produce legislation through the regular process. I believe that is what I heard the majority leader say. We are willing to do that. But in following through on that, we have to be able to have some time on the floor to debate and vote on those issues. That is what we need to do. Although there are a few exceptions to this, for the most part, the majority has not followed this process, and we have not been permitted an opportunity to address these issues on the Senate floor. We have been trying for 2 weeks to do that.…”