Political Quotes

“Mr. President, we are looking at a FEMA emergency supplemental. There is no doubt this country has sustained a series of disasters that will require Federal support and funding. We have seen them in Alabama, my home State, where we had the worst series of tornadoes in history, and some of the most powerful, that completely demolished two-story brick homes with nothing but foundations left. Lives were lost to an extraordinary degree, and people were injured. We have had floods. We have had fires and droughts around the country. We have some of that every year, and some of this is unusual. So it is incumbent upon us in Congress to wrestle with that and to try to figure out what should be done and how we can best supplement the insurance and State actions and local people's abilities to respond and share a bit of the pain throughout the country. Since I have been interested in the emergency bill and I have some ideas, I was surprised we were told it was going to be added to the Burma sanctions bill, and it was going to be $6.9 billion. I hadn't had a chance to know and review and see what those numbers were and whether they were justified. But Majority Leader Reid said we want to move to that. That is what we want to do. Some said--and surely it is not true--that Senator Reid was setting a trap for the Republicans; that he would offer this bill, throw it out there, and he would have extra money in it and we would complain.…”