Political Quotes

“I had not intended to speak today, but I had the good fortune to be on the floor to hear my colleague from Minnesota describe this urgent amendment, which we do need to take action on. I want to commend her for the work that she has done for our Afghan allies over a number of years. I do believe that if this is offered as an amendment, it will get an overwhelmingly positive vote in this body. I wanted to just share a little bit about these Afghans in Virginia. In 2021, when Afghans were coming to the United States at the end of the war, they came to Virginia. Almost all of the Afghans who came to the United States came to Dulles Airport. They were then taken to a facility that was a Dulles conference center, where they were processed. I had the opportunity to see them both at the airport and at the Dulles convention center. After initial processing, these Afghans were distributed to eight military bases across the United States, and three of those bases were in Virginia: Quantico, Fort Gregg-Adams, and Fort Barfoot. In those months, October and November of 2021, I visited each of the bases to interview the Afghans and hear about their journey but also about their hopes for life in this country. It was tremendously inspiring. When Afghans would arrive at these bases on a bus from the Dulles conference center, they would be met by our troops standing outside the bus, waving American flags. That was their welcome.…”