Political Quotes

“Mr. President, on Friday, I voted with many of my colleagues not to accept the deal that was offered at that time, the CR to go for 4 weeks. I felt that was unnecessarily long. Also, I voted against it because I felt, like a lot of my Democratic colleagues and some of my Republican colleagues, that we need to deal with this situation on immigration and that we shouldn't wait for the White House to indicate its preference. I felt that we could have an agreement to move forward, so I voted against the proposal at that time. In the intervening time, we have worked with the majority leader to, No. 1, have a shorter timeframe, which now has been offered, that of February 8. That is longer than I would like, but it is shorter than a 4-week CR. Also, we had an agreement, which the majority leader has just announced, that if an agreement on immigration has not been reached by that time, the majority leader, using his discretion and his authority as majority leader, will move to immigration, and at that time, we can deal with the DACA issue and broader immigration issues generally; that moving to immigration, my understanding--and I believe the commitment-- is not to prejudice one bill over another, but anyone can bring forward their bill. There are several of us who have been working on a bipartisan bill. I believe we have seven Republicans and seven Democrats on that effort right now. That legislation certainly will be considered, as will other legislation, as it should be.…”