Political Quotes

“I appreciate the gentleman's courtesy in permitting me to speak on this bill. I am pleased that this bill is being named after Senator McCain. It has been my privilege to work with him in one particular area: dealing with the people who worked with us in Afghanistan and Iraq on special immigrant visas. Along with the late Senator Kennedy, over the last 10 years, we worked to try and help these people who put their lives on the line to help our forces as guides, as interpreters, who are now being left to the tender mercies of people with long memories, like the Taliban and al-Qaida. Their lives are at risk, as are their family members'. We still have 17,000 applicants who want to have these visas to come to the United States to safety. I am disappointed that we have been unable to have the funding for additional visa allocations. I appreciate that due to an accounting convention, this would be at the expense of other important things that are being fought for. But I would hope that we are able to focus on what the costs would have been to us if we didn't have those people helping us in Afghanistan and Iraq. It would have been far more expensive. And like you, I have met with people whose lives were saved because they put themselves at risk, and we are leaving them behind. My friend, Kirk Johnson, wrote a book: ``To Be a Friend Is Fatal: The Fight to Save the Iraqis America Left Behind.'' And for these people, being a friend of the United States is fatal.…”