Political Quotes

“before I turn to Senator Portman, I would like to put up a quote from one of the leaders of the anti-trafficking movement, the Coalition Against Trafficking in Women, who expresses my sentiments exactly, my frustration over a partisan filibuster of a piece of legislation which has enjoyed broad bipartisan support and how somehow partisanship has infected what should be a bipartisan commitment to helping the victims of human trafficking. She says, ``Senate Democrats are choosing a phantom problem over real victims.'' I think that expresses the facts and certainly my sentiment. I want to turn to the Senator from Ohio first, who has been one of the leaders in this effort. He has offered an important piece of legislation which has already been incorporated in the bill which perhaps he will talk about but also has some additional amendments that I know he would like to get a chance to get a vote on to further improve the bill--in particular, his provision Bringing Missing Children Home Act with Senator Schumer, the Senator from New York, which is already in the base bill, and then with Senator Feinstein, the Senator from California--they offered the Combat Human Trafficking Act, which is already included in the base bill. So with that, I would yield to the Senator from Ohio for any remarks he would care to make, and then perhaps we could engage in a colloquy with our colleagues.”