Political Quotes

“I thank my good friend and fellow New Yorker for yielding to me. I want to commend him for the work he has done. I want to commend my friend and colleague, the gentlewoman from California (Ms. Waters) for this bill. Madam Speaker, like all of my colleagues, I rise in strong support of H.R. 4573, which pushes for the cancellation of debts owed by Haiti to multilateral financial institutions. I am the chairman of the Western Hemisphere Subcommittee, and I also have a large Haitian population in my district in Spring Valley, New York. I am honored to say that, last Friday, I traveled to Haiti. You can see the devastation in the newspapers; you can look at it on television, but until you are there in person, you cannot imagine how horrible it is. The other things you see are thousands upon thousands upon thousands upon thousands of people in the streets with nothing to do and with no place to go--with no place to go to work and with no place to call home. There are rows of tents and shacks and of things put up for people to seek shelter. There are people just in the streets, and they are friendly towards the United States. We have a special obligation to help the people of Haiti. We met President Preval in Port-au-Prince last Friday. Today, I had the honor and pleasure of meeting him again twice--once at the White House with President Obama and then, after that meeting, at a private meeting with Members of Congress.…”