Political Quotes

“first of all, to my colleague from Indiana, there is nobody who has been a greater ally or greater friend than Senator Donnelly in some of the fights we have had, basically making sure that there is fairness between business and workers and that workers are treated fairly. We fought for that. Mr. Donnelly has fought for miners in Indiana, and he brought me into his State to spend time with them, and I appreciate that very much. We will continue to make sure that we get the job done. This should not be a conversation we are having right now--fighting for miners' pensions. This was all rolled into one bill. The healthcare and pensions were all done at one time. We had a pay-for. We had it worked out. We thought we had an agreement, and it was bipartisan. It came out of the Senate Finance Committee in a bipartisan way. I thank Senator Hatch for taking an interest in leading that. We will have to go back and fix this now. We have half of the job done and half more to do. Two weeks ago marked the 1-year anniversary of having a permanent fix for the miners' healthcare, preventing 22,600 coal miners, just in my State alone, from losing their healthcare. Now the Joint Select Committee on the Solvency of Multiemployer Pension Plans, of which I am very proud to be a member, is determined to find a permanent solution for the miners' pensions.…”