Political Quotes

“Despite our setback, Chairman Smith and I were, and have remained, determined to move forward. I know I have his full support for inclusion of this measure in the Defense authorization measure we now consider, and I greatly appreciate the efforts he made in a bipartisan manner to get this done. In fact, the legislation containing this amendment was unanimously passed in the House of Representatives in June of this year by a voice vote. I know a lot of Senators on both sides of the aisle care about reforming government programs and making the Federal Government work better. This is a bipartisan measure that does that. It will speed up claims processing, it will reduce costs to the Department of Justice, and it will lessen unnecessary paperwork burdens for claimants. It has passed with overwhelming Democratic and Republican support in the House. It had stalled in the past over misguided objections. Some might say this is not the responsibility of Congress. As a constitutional matter, that is simply not true. It is a matter of policy. Since 1976, Congress has made the judgment that the right thing to do is to take care of surviving spouses and children of police officers, firefighters, and emergency medical responders who are killed in the line of duty. Congress has always provided assistance to these heroes. If there is a Senator who believes this is beyond the responsibility of Congress, then introduce and defend legislation to repeal the policy first enacted in 1976.…”