Robert Byrd

Bob, I will never know the rules as well as you do. I will make a deal with you. I will not surprise you if you will not surprise me.

If Congress cannot pass a budget, then we should not be paid.

The reconciliation process was designed to facilitate legislation to reduce deficits. Instead, the process has been used to enact multi-trillion-dollar tax cuts that led to record deficits over the last 8 years.

I respectfully exercise my Fifth Amendment right and decline to answer.

the use of force authority granted to the President extends only to the perpetrators of the September 11 attack.

The Framers recognized that a minority can be right and that a majority can be wrong.

Let us clearly understand one thing. The Constitution's Framers never intended for the Senate to function like the House of Representatives.

The Senate is the proverbial saucer intended to cool the cup of coffee from the House.

I have said that, as long as the Senate retains the power to amend and the power of unlimited debate, the liberties of the people will remain secure.

Senator Robert Byrd, the expert extraordinary on the Senate, spent weeks on end trying to figure out a way that you could assure the passage of bills that pertained to the budget and not destroy the filibuster rule.

makes the majority leader and the majority party the subject of the minority, subject to the control and the will of the minority.