Political Quotes

“I thank the gentleman for yielding. Mr. Speaker, I rise in strong support of H.R. 847, and at the outset, let me commend my colleagues, Carolyn Maloney and Jerry Nadler, for the truly outstanding job they've done for all these years and for their directness and for their candor and for always being there when the tough decisions had to be made. Let me also thank former Congressman Vito Fossella for the work that he did for a number of years when he was here in the Congress on this bill as well. Let me commend the leadership in both parties. I commend the Democratic leadership for bringing this back up for a majority vote. I commend them for it. I know it's been tough. Some tough decisions had to be made, and they've made them. I thank them for that. I also thank the leadership for the Republican Party for working with a number of us to make sure that it would be a fair and open vote and debate here today. So I thank them for that. Let me also say that all of us know this has been a long and tortuous route to get this bill to the House floor today. During that time, there's been frustration, tempers have flared, but also, probably most importantly, people have died, and that's what we have to keep in mind. This is a real human issue. We have people sitting here in the gallery today. Many of them have breathing problems. Many of them have pulverized glass in their lungs. Many have poisonous toxins in their bloodstream. So this is real. This is a real human issue.…”