Political Quotes

“I wore this bracelet for 9 months, since September 11. This bracelet was given me by the widow of Ray Downing, one of my best friends. Ray Downing took me through the World Trade Center in 1991 to give me lessons that I should learn to take back to this body regarding our ability to respond to terrorist incidents. Ray Downing was the Chief Rescue Officer for New York City on September 11. All of those 343 firefighters that were killed worked for Ray Downing. As people were rushing out of the building, Ray was going in with his friends. In fact, two of his sons are firefighters today with the New York City Fire Department. Ray Downing became a good friend of mine after 1991. And, in fact, he encourage me to introduce legislation in our defense bill, which I did in 1999, creating the Gilmore Commission. The Gilmore Commission published three documents long before 9-11 occurred. And so when my colleagues today talk about a rush to do something, I do not know where they have been. The Gilmore Commission, the Hart-Rudman Commission, the Deutsch Commission, the Bremer Commission, all of this work was done over the past 8 years. Where have my colleagues been? When were they engaged with us? Ray Downing was engaged. Ray Downing made recommendations for one single Federal agency, and he made it over and over again in the Gilmore Commission document.”