Political Quotes

“I thank my friend, the chairwoman of the committee, for yielding. I must say, the innuendos, the negative characterization, the smears, if not slanders, launched against Federal employees in general on the floor today would come as news, unwelcome news, to the almost quarter of a million Federal employees in Kentucky, Georgia, and Texas. Almost 10 percent of the entire Federal workforce live in those three States. The amendment just offered is a direct assault on our Federal workforce and would completely gut the bill in front of us. It grew from the Trump administration's efforts to turn our expert civil service into a collection of cronies. This amendment invites the crony clown car into the Federal Government. My concern is not hypothetical. In September of 2019, then-President Trump circled areas of Alabama with a Sharpie that he claimed were dangerously in the path of a hurricane, Hurricane Dorian. That prognostication was contrary to what expert civil servants, not swamp creatures, at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration found. Luckily, the civil servants in NOAA's Birmingham, Alabama, office tweeted out Mr. Trump's error. While ``#Sharpiegate'' made a funny hashtag on Twitter, the aftermath could have been catastrophic and cost lives. What if FEMA deployed in the wrong region? What if millions of taxpayer dollars had been wasted, sending Federal help where it was not needed?…”