John Thune: “Over the past 5 weeks I have seen the good, the bad and the ugly; for the past 5 weeks, the bad and the ugly of how…”

“Over the past 5 weeks I have seen the good, the bad and the ugly; for the past 5 weeks, the bad and the ugly of how things can work here. But today we are seeing the good, as people come together to try to do what, granted, we should have done a long time ago. But I think it is very important for us, because we have made a commitment and it is important that we honor that commitment. I believe that the integrity of this institution, the credibility of the House and the Senate and the White House is about commitments made and commitments honored. We have made a commitment to the American people for those who have suffered from disasters, and today we are finally delivering on that, and I am very happy to be a part of this day in bringing this process to a conclusion. Mr. Speaker, I think that it does strike very much at the heart of our ability to govern, and I think it is very important that we have finally achieved an outcome which the people I know in my State of South Dakota are very desperately anxious to see.”