Political Quotes

“I come to the floor today to talk about our obligation to protect workers across America and to urge my colleagues to support the Protecting America's Workers Act, which I am very proud to introduce today. Mr. President, middle-class families across this country are struggling. So many of them have lost their homes or their jobs and are fighting to keep their heads above water. We are working hard here to create jobs and get the economy back on track, but we also owe it to middle-class families to make sure those jobs are safe and healthy. In 2009 alone there were 4,340 deaths in workplaces across America, and over 3 million more were injured or sickened while on the job. If more than 4,000 Americans were killed in 1 day, it would be on the front page of every newspaper in this country. If an epidemic in this country claimed 4,000 lives, it would lead the nightly news each week. But that is not the way it works with workplace injuries. They happen a few at a time, spread out across the country, in communities such as Anacortes in my home State of Washington, where a fire broke out last year at the Tesoro Refinery and killed seven workers. These were men and women who were taken too young, with so much life to live and with so many people to live it with; workers who took on tough jobs and worked long hours during difficult economic times to provide for their families.…”