Heidi Alexander: “in just a few minutes, after brief comments by Senator Murray and me, we will proceed to a cloture vote and then our…”

“in just a few minutes, after brief comments by Senator Murray and me, we will proceed to a cloture vote and then our next votes will be at 2:30. I think, from the reading of the amendments, that the Senators can see that we have had a fair and open amendment process. Just to give you an example, in our committee consideration to fix No Child Left Behind, we adopted 29 amendments, and the committee was pleased enough with the process that they reported the bill unanimously. The substitute amendment, one of the amendments I just listed, adopts the priorities of 52 Members into that substitute amendment. On the Senate floor already since last week, we have adopted 27 amendments, and I just read the two consent requests. The manager's package has 21 amendments in it, and those have been adopted. Then there are the 21 more votes that we just secured approval to vote on either by voice or in fact. So the vote we are about to have is a vote on whether to end debate on our bill to fix No Child Left Behind. I think the question before the Senators is this: Do you think there has been a fair process? Do you think it is open enough? Do you think the bill is worthy of having these votes and going toward final passage? I hope every single Senator will agree that yes, it has been. This is the way the Senate is supposed to work.…”