Political Quotes

“as I said this morning, Washington, DC, seems to have an inexhaustible capacity to manufacture false crises. I am here to say that this is not one of them. If the Congress does not act immediately to pass the legislation Senator Murkowski and I advance today, scores of American manufacturing and technology companies employing millions of American workers are going to find it impossible to continue their current operations. Our government got involved with helium after World War I because the defense sector needed it. Ever since, President after President and Congress after Congress has tried to come up with a policy that gets government out of the helium business while still meeting the needs of our middle-class workers, our businesses, and our taxpayers. Senator Murkowski and I are here to say that our bipartisan bill does that. The reality also is that it raises some revenue. With that revenue, we will be able to meet--we talked about it in the committee-- ongoing needs, particularly for folks hurting in rural communities where the Federal Government owns most of the land. They are concerned about their schools and their police and their roads. And because of the good work by colleagues on the other side of the aisle-- particularly Senators Risch and Flake--we were able to secure an additional $51 million to pay down the deficit. We have 7 minutes on each side. I know colleagues are anxious to vote. I yield time to Senator Murkowski.…”