All Quotes

I want to finish this bill this week. I want to be as cooperative and as forceful with our colleagues on both sides of the aisle in accommodating that kind of schedule. There comes a time when we have to try to bring this to a close. I…

So is it accurate to state that the Committee on Appropriations intends for the Forest Service to fund the Rocky Mountain Research Station in Rapid City, South Dakota at least at the same level in fiscal year 2001 as it did in fiscal year…

Rhetoric is not enough. The Senate must do the right thing and pass the Norwood-Dingell provisions. You can't say it any more directly nor any more powerfully than that--whether it is the sponsors of the House-passed bipartisan bill, or…

The Senate must give Americans the patient protections they want and need now.--Thomas R. Reardon, MD, AMA President. "The AMA strongly supports attaching the Norwood-Dingell patients' rights bill to the DoD reauthorization bill. Patients…

Saying our military retirees would beat a path to the Federal system offering TRICARE as an alternative--frankly, that is an unpopular option. This Johnson amendment is what the military retirees want and deserve.

One of the benefits of the Federal Employees Health Benefits Plan is it doesn't require a large, new infrastructure to be set up. People simply choose the insurance policy of their wish and they go to whomever they wish, whether managed…

I believe that is a key difference. Also is the fact that this legislation of mine does address the issue of free medical care.

The chairman, the Senator from Virginia, has a very constructive suggestion. I certainly will not put words in his mouth relative to the interpretation of his legislation. I applaud him for his legislative efforts. But I will draw some…

I hope the majority leader will work with us to work through these 19 names. As I say, some of them have put their lives on hold now for over a year. It is just intolerable to them, and it should be intolerable to us that we would accept…

I admire him immensely. No Member, past or present, has ever displayed a greater love or respect for this institution than has Robert C. Byrd. No Member enjoys greater respect and admiration from his colleagues. No Member is more reluctant…

I am as disappointed as he is that in committee, after more than a year's worth of work, the document the committee had been using, the work they had been constructing was shelved in favor of a very partisan approach to the Federal role in…

I think the Republican bill is a marriage penalty relief bill in name only. It's a Trojan horse for the other risky tax schemes they have that have been proposed so far this year.

I regret that this vote had to have been taken. I have made it clear from the very beginning that my hope is we can find some way to compromise.

We would not agree to second-degree amendments. To ask for the details on top of all of that seems to me to be a real stretch. I am sure that in good faith we can work through these amendments one by one. That is quite an acknowledgment on…

No. I am simply saying in most of the amendments offered there is a direct relevancy to the issue of marriage tax penalty. I am also suggesting in all cases we would be prepared to limit the debate to 1 hour equally divided. Regardless of…

On several occasions we have had debates with the Parliamentarian and with the majority with regard to the issue of relevancy. I point out to my colleagues, the concept of relevancy is only defined as it relates to an appropriations bill…

I thank Senators Wellstone, Domenici, and Craig for working out an agreement on a veterans amendment which increases outlays for veterans' health care by $500 million over the Budget Committee's level in each year of the budget resolution…

I came to the floor to thank the distinguished senior Senator from New York, but also my two colleagues, Senators Robb and Kerrey, for their extraordinary statements on the Senate floor. I hope the American people have had the opportunity…