Political Quotes

“I rise to honor a dedicated public servant whom we tragically lost last week, Chris Allen. Chris served in the Senate for nearly a decade, most recently on Senator Grassley's staff. I appreciate that Senator Grassley happens to be presiding right now as the President pro tem of the Senate. Chris was a leader in our efforts to solve the pension crisis that threatens the retirement security of more than a million Americans, including a number of people in the Galleries today. My staff and I got to know him well while working together to find a bipartisan solution. He was part of what we consider to be a sort of pensions family in the Senate. We didn't always agree, but Chris always understood the stakes. He took this crisis seriously. He knew it affected people's lives in the most central way. He understood what collective bargaining was about--meaning, you give money up today in wages to protect your future. He was committed to finding a solution. Most importantly, as Senator Grassley knows, he always treated the retirees with dignity, and he respected their work. He understood what this retirement crisis meant to those families and the pressures they were under. In 2018, when we worked together with him and Senator Grassley's staff and Chairman Hatch and Senator Portman on our bipartisan pensions committee, we held a field hearing in Columbus in order to hear directly from current workers, retirees, and small businesses.…”