Heidi Alexander: “I know there are a number of Senators who have important appointments. I know the Senator from Oklahoma has a military…”

“I know there are a number of Senators who have important appointments. I know the Senator from Oklahoma has a military funeral he wants to attend, so I intend to make about 3 or 4 minutes of concluding remarks and then yield back the rest of the Republican time. I would say this to my friend from Utah. Critics of this body say we are not able to get a result. We are often able to get a result, and this vote is about whether we are able to get a result. That is what this vote is about. We have big differences. That is why we are sent here--to resolve our big differences. If all we want to do is announce our differences, we could stay home and speak on a street corner. After we announce our differences, our job is to get a result. We are not the Iraqi Parliament, we are the United States Senate. Under our rules, after we have had a full process, our leaders--the Republican leader and the Democratic leader--appoint Members of the Senate to work with Members of the House and see if we can get a result--see if we can get a result. As I said earlier, this went through committee--22 members on the committee. As diverse a committee as we have, unanimously they recommended a result, with many amendments. This came to the floor, we had more than 70 amendments, and with a vote of 81 to 17 we got a result. We have our instructions. It came from this Senate--81 to 17. We have our instructions.…”