Mr. President, let the games begin. That is what is going on here. I have full respect for my colleague, but you can tell from his tone and tenor that Senator Paul finds it amusing he is offering a clean debt ceiling increase that he is voting against. He is offering an amendment he is voting against, when we know we are in discussions with the President, and with the Vice President, and discussions with the Gang of Six to try to figure out a way that we can come together, not have ``gotcha'' votes on the Senate floor. It is outrageous. I will tell you why it is outrageous. We have an underlying bill here that you have been very helpful with, Mr. President--S. 782--the Economic Development Revitalization Act of 2011, which will reauthorize a very important program that has been in place in this great Nation since 1965. It was last passed when George W. Bush was President. It passed this Senate unanimously, without all these amendments that are going nowhere. There are 27 amendments as of last night--actually, it is probably many more now. We know this game because we played it before, when Senator Landrieu stood where I am and tried to get a small business bill through here, which would have created thousands of jobs in this Nation. Well, here we are. We have a bill that came out of the Environment and Public Works Committee with a strong vote. We had one dissent. Senator Inhofe is my primary cosponsor.…
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I thank my friend so much. Madam President, how much time remains for us? The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator has 20 minutes remaining.
So I will continue to speak, and when I am done, I am done. It may be soon because I am getting a little tired, but I will keep talking for a while. I say to everybody that I am sorry, but don't drop a midnight rider on a beautiful bill…
Mr. President, today I ask my colleagues to join me in honoring the life of Police Officer Jose Gilbert Vega, a beloved husband, father, grandfather, and uncle who was tragically killed in the line of duty on October 8, 2016. Jose ``Gil''…
The request would be to strip the rider out. My colleagues look perplexed. We have been talking about a 98-page rider that was added to the WRDA bill, and we have filed an amendment to do that. The PRESIDING OFFICER. It is not in order.





