Political Quotes

“Mr. President, reserving the right to object, we received this 125-page bill yesterday evening. I have great appreciation and respect for my colleague, the Senator from Washington, and yet I can't look at this 125-page bill we saw for the first time yesterday evening without thinking that hardly enough time has passed since this legislation was introduced to even read the bill, let alone to mark it up in committee or bring it up on the Senate floor and have it passed here. Even though Congress has acted to provide emergency assistance in response to the current global pandemic, this legislation includes significant additional spending for a number of programs that have not been debated in the Senate. This bill would also create at least one new program, and I say ``at least,'' because, again, we are still trying to figure out what is in it. It creates at least one new program, the Community College and Industry Partnership Grants Program. I am sure this would do a number of good things, but, again, this thing is not ready for prime time. This program is, as far as I can tell, largely duplicative of existing programs. This legislation would provide $2 billion for it anyway. A bill of this length and a bill that provides for billions of dollars in new spending should not--I would hope would never--be passed this quickly. The Senate should take the time to thoroughly weigh the changes proposed in this legislation. Therefore, on behalf of Senator Alexander and myself, I object.…”