Political Quotes

“first on COVID negotiations, yesterday, I met with a group of my colleagues--Senators Murray, Coons, Romney, Blunt, Burr, and Graham--for another round of talks as we work toward a bipartisan COVID agreement. We spoke throughout the day; we talked late into the night; our staffs are continuing talks this morning. The gap has been narrowed greatly, and we are intent on working with Republicans to cross the finish line because this is vital for our country if, God forbid, a new variant arises in the future, and that is all too likely. We would like considerably more money than our Republican colleagues, but we need to reach 60 votes to get something passed through the Senate, and so we are going to push as hard as we can. When it comes to replenishing COVID response funding, we simply can't afford to kick the can down the road. The White House has been more than clear and more than transparent about the fact that public funds for COVID are at risk of running out. We all know that a possible future variant can quickly undo much of the progress we have made against the virus, so it makes no sense whatsoever to hold off on COVID funding that we know is very much needed right now. The more we wait, the bigger the problem will be later, God forbid a variant hits. The bottom line is this: Both sides should work to complete COVID funding soon because that will mean more vaccines, more therapeutics, and more testing so we can keep schools and communities open.…”