Political Quotes

“I thank the Senator from Florida for coming to the floor and speaking so articulately about the need for help for Puerto Rico. His State is the most impacted State in the United States when it comes to our policy as it relates to Puerto Rico. He is right that there are not many Puerto Ricans in the State of Washington. But as the Ranking Member of the Senate Committee on Energy and Natural Resources, which has jurisdiction for the territories, I can tell you territorial oversight is about giving people who are U.S. citizens fair access to the law. If we are not going to help people who are U.S. citizens have fair access to the law, I am not sure why we are continuing to say that they are a territory of the United States of America. What we are talking about, and the Senator from Florida understands this, is if you don't give them fair treatment under the law, just as we do with individual citizens who need to reorganize their debt, businesses who need to reorganize their debt, municipalities that need to reorganize their debt, or even the United States of America in the big bank bailout basically allowing a lot of people to reorganize their debt, then we won't let the people in Puerto Rico come to a resolution of their debt in bankruptcy. It is a hypocrisy that is unexplainable at the moment. We should get to the bottom of this because we want to give fair treatment to Puerto Rico so they can solve their own problems.…”