Political Quotes

“Mr. President, I also want to thank the chairman for his extraordinary leadership in getting us to this point. For 59 years straight we have passed the National Defense Authorization Act, and I think, honestly, without the chairman's leadership we would have failed this year. So he is owed a great debt of gratitude by all of us and appreciation, particularly from the men and women of the military. Let me speak a bit about this year's bill: the William M. (Mac) Thornberry National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2021. We reached a conference committee report which was fair and bipartisan. In fact, I think the best testimony of that was the vote last evening by the House of Representatives--335 to 78, with 1 Member voting present. That is, by definition, bipartisan, substantive, overwhelmingly supported by both sides as a fair--not only fair but extraordinarily beneficial piece of legislation for the country. You don't get that vote on something that is partisan and narrowly defined and divisive. This bill is bipartisan. Again, Exhibit A: the vote last night in the House of Representatives. We have passed it for 59 years. There should be no exception this year. This is the 60th. And I hope we complete that and I expect we will complete that tomorrow. And, indeed, this whole effort, like everything else in this country, has been twisted and exacerbated by the COVID virus.…”