Political Quotes

“Mr. President, reserving the right to object, and I think my friend from Florida knows I will. This entire issue is a misnomer. There have been a few online things to try to make a big deal out of it, and I am sorry that some have fallen for it, but the Biden administration produced a letter this week clarifying this misunderstanding. The administration stated clearly they never authorized use of Federal funding for smoke pipes and will not in the future. In fact, I don't think any administration has. Of course, the bill that the Senator from Florida is proposing goes much further than Republicans say it would. It would severely cripple our ability to respond to addiction, which has taken 100,000 lives a year right now, including lives in his State and mine. We offered an alternative; but that was rejected. We actually have to go to the CR now. The House is gone. We have to pass it--the CR and send it to the President without amendments or our government funding runs out. And I might just say--I mean, everybody has the right to speak about anything they want. Everybody has the right to make any kind of political point for any group they want, but let's talk about being U.S. Senators. A war is about to start in Ukraine, in all likelihood. And what we are saying is we will start putting all of these things in, slow up a continuing resolution so the United States Government will have to shut down tomorrow night.…”