Political Quotes

“Within the next 30 minutes or so, about four, perhaps five, buses of people are going to arrive on the West front of the Capitol and walk in here and fill up these Chambers. These are people who, almost every single one of them, are to some degree a victim of September 11. They are people who aren't going to run very fast; although, they were, not so long ago, very healthy. These are people who, after September 11, not because it was their job, although some of them are professional firefighters and first responders, but because they are patriotic Americans, they went down to Ground Zero and, with their hands, literally, helped dig out our city and our country. It was not just from New York. We all remember iconically that the days after September 11, if you stood on the West Side Highway of Manhattan and looked at the license plates of the fire trucks, of the cars, of the ambulances, they were from all around the country. Every single district--434, in fact, of the 435 districts have someone who has that 9/11 cough. Nine years later, 900 Americans have died from 9/11-related illnesses. Now, they're going to come here and they're going to fill up these galleries, and they don't know a motion to recommit from a suspension. They don't know what the rule is. They don't know what the number is. All that they know is that, by degrees, every single day they're dying. They're dying from diseases they didn't have. These are some of the most vigorous people you can imagine.…”