Joe Lieberman: “I wish to thank my dear friend and colleague from Maine, not my ranking member but really sort of cochair partner of our…”

“I wish to thank my dear friend and colleague from Maine, not my ranking member but really sort of cochair partner of our committee, for her excellent statement. I share her frustration about the procedural moment we are at in the Senate. I hope and I believe this is temporary. I believe Senator Reid's intention is to do exactly what Senator Collins has said she would like to see happen, which is that we negotiate an agreement, hopefully--it would have to be adopted by consent, but it would have to be amendment by amendment, where we would go back and forth and consider amendments from each side of the aisle. I know Senator Reid has filled the tree. It is not as if there are not amendments that the Senate Democratic caucus wants to offer to the bill. There are. There are several of them. I know there are several on the Republican side. We worked very hard on this bill, as Senator Collins has said. The meetings did seem endless. I would say sometimes they seemed excessively endless. But, nonetheless, we reached across the aisle and compromised. This is not a perfect piece of work. It is an important subject, so it deserves to be considered, debated, and amendments need to be offered. I am confident in saying that is exactly the direction in which the majority leader wants to go, and the sooner the better. Having said that, and seeing no one else on the Senate floor, I suggest the absence of a quorum. The PRESIDING OFFICER. The clerk will call the roll.…”