Political Quotes

“Mr. President, it is extremely disappointing that the minority leader has objected to a commonsense piece of legislation that was passed--again, let me repeat--unanimously out of my committee. Not one Democratic member of our committee objected to this. It was a good piece of legislation. It is so important. I am shocked, coming from the private sector, how much retaliation actually occurs within government even though we passed numerous bills protecting whistleblowers. The fact is, had these tragedies been known, had the whistleblowers been protected, had the Office of Inspector General made its investigation reports public, tragedies would have been prevented. One of the veterans who died at the Tomah VA was Thomas Baer. I was talking to his daughter a week or so after he passed from neglect, as he suffered a couple strokes waiting to be cared for. She said: Senator, had I only known of the problems at the Tomah VA, I never would have taken my father there. He would be alive today. All I am asking for is a commonsense bill that again was passed unanimously by my committee. Unfortunately, it is being objected to and will not pass today. At a moment in time in our history when there are so many divisions in this country, this is one thing we all agree on in this body, to honor the promises to the finest among us, our veterans. This bill honors those promises.…”