Political Quotes

“Madam President, I am speaking on the bill as well as the amendments. In a short time, the Senate will vote on and pass a permanent reauthorization of the 9/11 Victim Compensation Fund. In my short time on the floor, I can't do justice to the years upon years of work by the first responders, by labor leaders, by advocates that led to this moment. Suffice it to say, this is not a day of joy for them or for this bill's authors; rather, it is a day of relief. For 18 years, those first responders, some of whom are in the Gallery, have watched their brothers and sisters get sick because they rushed bravely to the Towers at Ground Zero. At first, they were told by the government the air was safe. It was not safe. We began hearing of cancers that people never got when they were 38 or 40 or 42 occurring all of a sudden in firefighters, in police officers, and they only had one thing in common: They had all rushed to the Towers. They had to persuade people this was real because they saw their brothers and sisters dying. Then, they endured folks telling them they were crazy for thinking they had sicknesses they suffered that had anything to do with 9/11. They were not crazy, and the people who told them they were, shame on them, including government agencies and others.…”