Political Quotes

“I want to talk for a few moments about the positive impact next year's Transportation-HUD appropriations bill is going to have on my home State of Vermont, particularly as we continue rebuilding from Hurricane Irene's destructive forces back in August. I want to praise subcommittee chair Patty Murray and ranking member Susan Collins. Their hard work and dedication ensures the final bill, filed last night, provides both appropriate funding for disaster relief accounts and also moves heavy truck traffic out of historic downtowns both in Vermont and in Maine. As you and the others know, ever since Hurricane Irene, I have spoken over and over again on the floor of the Senate but also in meeting after meeting of the Appropriations Committee and probably in hundreds of hours in discussions with both Republican and Democratic Senators, especially on the Appropriations Committee, about the needs to Vermont. Irene was devastating to our small State of Vermont. Both my wife and I were born in Vermont, and never in our lifetime have we seen anything like what we saw--record rains, and flash floods simply washed away homes, farms, businesses, roads, and bridges all over the State, including some that had been there for 100 years.…”