Senate Democrats News Conference RE: New Democratic Leadership with Senator Thomas Daschle (D-SD), Senate Minority Leader; and Others

SENATE DEMOCRATS NEWS CONFERENCE RE: NEW DEMOCRATIC LEADERSHIP WITH SENATOR THOMAS DASCHLE (D-SD), SENATE MINORITY LEADER; AND OTHERS
 
SEN. PATTY MURRAY (D-WA): Well, I too want to join my colleagues in congratulating Senator Daschle for the tremendous leadership he has brought not only to our caucus but to thousands and thousands of people across this country who are very concerned about our economy and our health care and their own personal situations as we face an uncertain future. His leadership has been so important to all of us, and I am delighted to be a part of his leadership team going into the 108th Congress, to bring a voice to those issues and to bring a fight to the floor of the Senate, to help make life better across this country.

In my home state of Washington, we still have one of the highest unemployment rates in the nation, increasingly large numbers of people without any health-care coverage at all. We have a very difficult situation because we're the highest export state in the country, and we need to figure out how we're going to protect our ports in terms of homeland security. My state, like many, is facing a severe budget crisis, over $2-1/2 billion that—they're trying to figure how they're going to deal with that.

So it is essential that we have strong leadership here in Washington, D.C., to address the issues of health care and education, the economy and all of the tremendous issues that this caucus is going to move forward on in the coming session.

So I'm delighted to be a part of this committee and to be a part of this leadership, and to make sure that we have a strong voice and a strong face for many people across this country in the coming two years.