Political Quotes

“I will wrap up. As I have told a number of our colleagues across the aisle who believe passionately in the importance of this topic, I think this amendment we will vote on tomorrow addresses their stated concerns. It certainly addresses the concerns stated by the Democratic leader this morning. I would just say that of all the Senators on the other side of the aisle who agreed to cosponsor this legislation, who previously objected to voting on the bill and passing it--I would ask them to please take a close look at that provision. Again, page 3, lines 3 through 7 of my amendment now would provide that instead of the fines and penalties being directly appropriated into these programs for grant purposes, that money would come from a general fund of the Treasury in an equivalent amount of the fines and penalties. So, money being fungible, there is no loss of funds, but what we have done is we have tried to address their concerns, I think in a way that eliminates them. All the Senators who cosponsored this legislation, for which I am very grateful--Senator Klobuchar, Senator Wyden, Senator Coons, Senator Udall, Senator Casey, Senator Feinstein, Senator Gillibrand, Senator Heitkamp, Senator Schumer, Senator Blumenthal, Senator Peters, and Senator Durbin--I hope all of our Democratic friends who previously objected based on the original provision will take a look at this change because it does directly address their stated concerns. Let's get this done.…”