Heidi Alexander: “as the Democratic leader leaves the floor, I thank him again for his cooperation and that of Senator Murray of…”

“as the Democratic leader leaves the floor, I thank him again for his cooperation and that of Senator Murray of Washington in creating an environment in which we can move ahead on this bill. I greatly appreciate that and so do other Senators. That is demonstrated with the fact that we have had dozens of Senators who have come forward with amendments. Dozens of amendments have been agreed to, and Senator Murray and I will be recommending to the full Senate that we adopt those amendments soon. I wish to take a moment to reflect on what we are doing in the Senate today. We spent a lot of time on national defense issues. The distinguished Senator who is presiding today is a member of our Intelligence Committee. He hears a great deal about ISIS, Iran, and the nuclear deal we might have and about what is going on in Syria and Lebanon, and we want to do our best to be strong militarily so we can defend ourselves in the world. We also want to be strong at home. We want to make sure we have a strong country. Almost all of us agree that the single most important thing we can do to ensure our future is to make sure our children and our adults continue to develop their educational skills, that they learn what they need to know and be able to do. I know in my home State of Tennessee we are trying to compete with the whole world.…”