Political Quotes

“Mr. Speaker, I thank Chairman Green, Mr. Graves, and all the people that have been involved in this process. It is, as has been described, a very commonsense fix that really affects a lot of blue-collar workers. If you work in a job that takes you into secure transportation environments, you are required to go through a very cumbersome process and also pay fees to get the security clearance to do that job. The fees are redundant, the process is redundant, and it is an incredible burden on workers just trying to do their job. This bill makes a ton of sense, fixes the process, reduces the fees, streamlines the process, is going to make it easier for workers all across the country, and it is something we need to work on. In my own world in the Department of Defense we have a similar problem with security clearances taking forever and in many cases being redundant, so I hope this is an idea that will spread. We need workers to go to work for us. Yes, we need security, but the process takes too long, it is redundant, and it costs too much. I hope this can be an inspiration to fix it. The last thing I want to say is that I first heard about this issue-- and I think this is the coolest thing about this legislation--from a constituent, Van Hurst, who was a Teamster and a truck driver at the time, who experienced this process, alerted my office to the problem, and it led to our involvement in this legislation.…”