Political Quotes

“Madam President, I am on the floor with my colleague Senator Portman to join him in urging the House to take prompt action on the Comprehensive Addiction and Recovery Act, which passed with such a stunning bipartisan vote in the Senate. As Senator Portman has pointed out, years of careful preparation went into the drafting of this bill. There were five separate national hearings held in Washington with people from all over the country. This is a very polished and carefully developed piece of legislative work that has the support not only of the addiction and recovery community but of the law enforcement community and many others. Senator Portman has been very diligent about coming to the floor to press for action from the House of Representatives. My view is that since the House of Representatives is under Republican control, they are more likely to be attentive to the urgings of a Republican Senator--particularly one who has served in the House of Representatives--than they are to me. But I want to make sure the record is clear that I fully support rapid passage of this bill, whether it is something that is close enough that we can quickly get it through conference or whether it is our bill, to which they are free to add things as they wish over time, but can get to the President now--the reason I think it is important that it get to the President now is we are in the appropriations process. The appropriators for these accounts need to know what they are appropriating to.…”