As the representatives of the people we are here to declare that our resolve has not been weakened by these horrific and cowardly acts. referring to the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon
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Literally minutes before the Senate cast its vote, the administration sought to add the words 'in the United States and' after 'appropriate force' in the agreed-upon text. This last-minute change would have given the president broad authority to exercise expansive powers not just overseas -- where we all understood he wanted authority to act -- but right here in the United States , potentially against American citizens . I could see no justification for Congress to accede to this extraordinary request for additional authority. I refused.
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To support federal funding for embryonic stem cell research is to come down on the side of hope for the millions of Americans suffering from diseases ranging from Alzheimer's to cancer to Parkinson's to diabetes,
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It involves greater surveillance. It involves improving the working relationship among federal and state and local agencies. It involves more border control and border opportunities to deal with those involved in crossing our borders,
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I think that it's so critical when you make a request to the Congress to authorize and appropriate $38 billion for homeland security, somebody ought to come up and explain just how you're going to spend it, ... Those issues are going unanswered in large measure because Mr. Ridge refuses to testify. We just have to find a way hopefully without the use of coercion to have those questions answered for the record.
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I'm equally dismayed that House managers have already chosen to contact witnesses. And then, to announce a witness reluctance to participate until they know the circumstances, that is in clear violation of the agreement that we had last week. And I hope it's not a harbinger of the politicized process that we have all said we oppose,
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I couldn't believe that we would actually commit $8 million to create a Web site that would encourage investors to bet on futures involving terrorist attacks and public assassinations, ... ... I can't believe that anybody would seriously propose that we trade in death ... How long would it be before you saw traders investing in a way that would bring about the desired result?
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merely replacing Secretary O'Neill and Lindsey is not a solution. With our economy stalling, unemployment rising and confidence suffering, it is clear that we need more than new faces. We need a new plan to stimulate our economy now.
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I've never seen an administration in all my years which is more intransigent, more unwilling to work with Democrats or across the aisle, ... It is amazing to me -- it is breathtaking -- how remarkably unwilling they are to sit down and try and find common ground.
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It is our intention, of course, to try to do all we can to improve that bill, ... We want to ensure that seniors have access to these drug benefits through Medicare itself. We want to make sure they know what it's going to cost. We want to make sure they know what they can count on with regard to the benefits themselves.
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With regard to fairness perhaps the most important element is to ensure that we provide the bulk of tax relief to working families.
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I think that there is an implication here, as they've done throughout this debate on Iraq, that if you oppose the president, your patriotism ought to be questioned, ... Meet the Press.
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I acknowledged that concern, and it is for that reason that the Intelligence Committee is going to begin this effort, trying to limit the scope and the overall review of what happened,
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That report is now a month overdue, ... We don't yet know what the administration's official position is as a result of their unwillingness to share a report with us.
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They're rolling a dice and in my view they're going to come up the big losers, ... They think there is some political resonance in this but that's not what I hear.
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The horrific tragedy [Tuesday] is another illustration of the need to do an array of things,
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The strong-arm tactics being used by the administration are clearly backfiring,
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It was important for us to be as supportive as our candidates and as our incumbent senators would have us be.
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There is no effort being made on the part of any Republican, that I'm aware of, that would allow us to do something constructive on estate tax relief today, ... Clearly they're not interested in an accomplishment. They're not interested in reducing the estate taxes of people. They're interested in playing to their base.
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The president and his advisers must accept that continued legal jousting serves no constructive purpose,
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In 1981 ... I sat in the House chamber when another new president talked to the American people about stimulating the economy,
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The reason why we're facing that deficit is because of the tax cut, so I hope that no one will be misled or in any way fooled by this notion that somehow it's the downturn of the economy or it's the war on terrorism,
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We don't know what effect this will have yet. We do know that it poses some serious questions regarding our relationship with our allies, with Russia and with China, that we're going to have to consider very, very carefully,
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All along, the administration vowed their policies would be painless,
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It's hard to express how angry I am about these attacks, how proud I am of the brave response on the part of my staff ... and so many others,
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As we speak, the Senate is in session,
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We are awed by their sacrifice and their bravery, and we want them and their families to know that they have the profound respect and gratitude of every American,
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We need to stand together to give our first responders the tools they need ... to protect our communities from terrorist attack and other tragedy.
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Our view is that there has to be some way ... to deal with this matter beyond the question of conviction, and we think censure presents that opportunity and we will be planning to propose that at some point,
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So I thank the director of the OMB (Office of Management and Budget) for confirming what we said last spring, but it doesn't make the fact that we were right feel any better.
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