Political Quotes

“Mr. President, I rise to voice my opposition to S. 3991, the so-called Public Safety Employer-Employee Cooperation Act. I have a number of policy and constitutional concerns about this bill, and I have expressed them over the years, but I have never had the opportunity to work with the bill's supporters to address those concerns. Even though this legislation falls within the HELP Committee's jurisdiction, the committee has never held a hearing on the bill and has only marked it up without amendment or written report--and that was years ago--and this is not the same bill we are considering today. An objective consideration of this bill reveals it is based on poorly reasoned policy. Over the last 7 years, the proponents of this bill have only brought it directly to the floor and purposefully circumvented the regular order of the Senate and its committee processes, perhaps because the scrutiny of that process would expose the multiple flaws in this legislation. Rather than addressing this bill on its merits, its proponents have decided, once again, to play the sound bite game. Their calculation is simple: Since this bill involves unions that organize among police and firefighters, they will continue to simply claim that anyone who opposes this bill is against police and firefighters. Let us address that calculated untruth first.…”