Political Quotes

“I see that the majority leader has filed cloture on the bill, which I understand. We have had a chance to have a good discussion and a good debate. We are getting toward the end of the consideration of our bill to fix No Child Left Behind. We have a couple of issues that we need to resolve, but there are only a couple, and for a bill this complicated, that is pretty good. So it would be my hope that we could continue on through the process, and the majority leader might even get to the point later in the week where he would be able to vitiate the cloture, and we could finish without a cloture vote. So far, so good. We have considered 58 amendments in committee and adopted 29. We have considered 25 on the floor, adopted 8 by rollcall, 11 by voice, and we have dozens more that have been agreed to by Senator Murray and me and that we would recommend to the Senate that we complete. So it is my hope that Senators will allow us to have a consensus about this bill. As was said by Newsweek magazine last week, this is the Education bill that everybody wants fixed, and we are the ones who are supposed to fix it. So while there are some issues toward the end that are a little more difficult to resolve than others, I hope Senators will agree that people have had a chance to have their say on education issues and that we can go on to the other important issues facing the country. I thank the Republican leader for giving us an opportunity to put this on the floor.…”