Political Quotes

“I come to the floor to talk about the NDAA, but before I do, I want to join my colleagues and share their great enthusiasm tonight out here on the Senate floor in talking about the Senate-crafted bill, the Great American Outdoors Act, that took a step closer to getting to the President's desk today. That is the investment that we believe we should be making in open space and public lands passed the House of Representatives and we hope will be signed by the President very shortly. This investment, as my colleagues were talking about tonight, has been a long time in coming on two fronts--obviously, coming from a State that represents a lot of National Parks and areas that need the investment in deferred maintenance projects--everything from Olympic National Park that will get an upgrade for some aging water systems to new trails at Mt. Rainier, to other projects at Lake Roosevelt and even Fort Vancouver. I want to thank all my colleagues, Senators Gardner, Manchin, Portman, King, Burr, Warner, Alexander, Daines, and Heinrich, who made up the coalition who have been working on this issue in the more recent days to make sure that we got it out of the Senate and got it over to the House of Representatives. The important thing is that it has been a bipartisan coalition of people who believe in public lands and open space that has brought us to this point.…”