Political Quotes

“Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume. Mr. Speaker, I want to begin by actually agreeing with my friends and, certainly, my good friend from Texas. He is right about the danger that we are dealing with. My friend from Florida is certainly right about the severity of this. I think where they are wrong is the suggestion that nothing has been done; $600 million has been deployed. This bill is actually a response to the very letter that my good friend from Florida read. This does provide the next third of the requested money by the administration. And, frankly, the bill extends this into next year to address the concerns my friend expressed about having a multiyear commitment. The money in here for the National Institutes of Health, which is the lead agency in developing vaccine and diagnostics, is fully funded for what they have asked to be funded for next year. So this actually does that. Now, we will have an additional bill through committee in June where we will provide additional resources for the CDC for next year and whatever other things needed. The total spending here on both sides is about the same. It is being deployed right now. This is a response to some of the concerns. What concerns my friends, I think, is they would just prefer not to pay for it. They would just prefer to add it to the national debt.…”