Political Quotes

“Mr. President, I appreciate my colleagues being down here again on a bipartisan basis to talk about where we are at this moment. We just had two messaging votes. Both of those votes failed. I voted for both of them because my message was I want to get this government open. I want to do it quickly and with the sense of urgency that responds to the men and women who have been so significantly impacted by this partial government shutdown for the past 34 days. I also want to be fair to the President's priorities that he has articulated in the proposal that he has provided to us as recently as Saturday. I think we can do this together. My message to folks back home--my message to people is don't give up hope because now is the time that we all must come together to address these issues, but you can't do it when the government is shut down. I have indicated I am supportive of a measure the Senator from Maryland, Mr. Cardin, has introduced that will allow for a short-term CR, 3 weeks, allow us then to go through--whether it is the appropriations process, the Judiciary Committee process--but allow us to have this debate on these important priorities; allow us to do the business of the Senate, to do the business of legislating, but let's also allow the business of the government to proceed by opening up the government right now. We will have an opportunity to go back and forth amongst colleagues. I will remind folks, we have very limited periods of time.…”