Political Quotes

“Madam President, I am pleased to join my friends--Senator Casey, who led this debate; Senator Manchin, who has worked on this legislation and devoted much of his career to the people that go down into the mines and provide the coal and electricity for much of the eastern half of the United States; Senator Warner, for his work with Senator Casey and Senator Wyden on the Finance Committee. Thanks to all of them. I want to talk about two pension issues starting with what happened 2 weeks ago, when hundreds of thousands of Teamsters and their families received exciting news that the U.S. Treasury was rejecting the Central States Pension Fund's plan to cut the pensions and benefits they had earned through a lifetime of hard work. This was a win for all of us who urged Treasury to reject these cuts. More importantly, it was a win for the thousands of union members, their families, their supporters, and their friends who worked so hard to protect what their union had spent decades fighting for. That rejection, to be sure, is not the end of the fight for the benefits that workers have earned. It was just the latest battle in the fight to protect workers' pensions. While Central States' 47,000 Teamsters in my State and tens of thousands in other States may have gotten a reprieve, we have more work to do.…”