Political Quotes

“Mr. Speaker, I thank the gentleman for allowing me to join this Special Order today and discuss this horrid and tragic situation in Southern California, truly a national emergency. Note that I call this a national emergency. Why? Because soon Congress will be sending hundreds of billions of dollars to California to help clean up this mess and rebuild. The most basic level of common sense demands that we not send billions upon billions to California without first looking carefully at the causes of this catastrophe, and when they are identified, making sure these causes will be addressed and resolved. The sad benefit that will come from understanding the cause of these southern California fires and also of understanding why California's fire protection systems failed isn't limited to California. Every State is facing hotter and dryer conditions. Every State must do a far better job adapting to these conditions. We need to look at what causes these horrific fires, what they did wrong or what we do wrong in trying to put them out, and then apply those lessons accordingly. You might ask why these questions were not asked and answered in any of the other fires that we have been suffering that were referred to by Congressman LaMalfa a few minutes ago. We have certainly had enough up in Oregon and northern California, but people in positions of authority perhaps haven't been listening.…”