Political Quotes

“Right now, as we discuss the NDIC once again, I am concerned for the folks who are working at the NDIC, doing the great work, and am worried about them as their work and their jobs are, again, turned into a political football. As the gentleman from Arizona has said, this is obviously not the first time that he has offered amendments or has offered legislation to close the NDIC. I am a reasonable human being, and at the vote that he referenced earlier this year, I sent Mr. Flake a note on February 22, asking him for the information that he was just citing. I want to do good things for this country, and if there had been duplicative functions and if the NDIC had not been doing the job that they tell me, I wanted to see that information. I did not receive any response to that February 22 information, so I then had my staff do research. I found that some of the information being referenced was from a GAO report from April 1993. Some of the personal testimonies against the NDIC were from a gentleman who was fired and from another man who hadn't worked there for 16 years. I then quantified/qualified what NDIC does, and noted that they are the only strategic drug threat assessment organization in the country. Many times, they're compared to the El Paso Intelligence Center, EPIC, which does tactical, ``tactical'' meaning that they have a 24-hour watch system that is prepared to respond quickly to requests from law enforcement.…”