Political Quotes

“I, too, rise today to speak in favor of cloture on the motion to proceed to S. 22, the Omnibus Public Land Management Act of 2009. The omnibus bill has been criticized as being large--and it is a large pile of paper. It is almost 1,300 pages. We acknowledge that. But this package of bills before us today also represents a huge commitment of time, a large commitment of resources by the Committee on Energy and Natural Resources, as well as the other four Senate committees. In the case of the Energy Committee, this package, along with a similar package that was passed by the Senate last spring, represents almost 2 years' worth of hearings, negotiations, and business meetings on all of these public lands issues. This package contains over 160 public lands bills, the vast majority of which went through the regular committee process, and then sat individually on the Senate calendar at the end of last session. There were 20 Members on my side of the aisle who were the primary sponsors of the bills in this package.”