Bill Nelson: “I have had the privilege of listening to the Presiding Officer in his role as the Senator from Colorado give a very…”

“I have had the privilege of listening to the Presiding Officer in his role as the Senator from Colorado give a very detailed and very comprehensive overview of a lot of the personalities and the intrigues, as well as the substance, that went into this whole debate on immigration. It was interesting that when we failed to get the necessary 60 votes today to cut off debate on a motion of cloture, all the Senators stayed on the floor and listened to the majority leader. I thought the tone that the majority leader, Senator Harry Reid of Nevada, set was not one of bitterness; it was one expressing a good deal of frustration in the fact that so much effort had been made and we didn't get to the 60 votes. As a matter of fact, I think we were some 11 or 12 votes short of the 60 votes. He did not point fingers. He didn't say whose fault it was. He said there will be another day, that this is one of the great issues of our time, and that America was better off for having had the debate. Harry Reid comported himself with great dignity and great leadership because there will be another day. There has to be another day on the issue of immigration, simply because what we have now on the books is a law this Senator voted for in 1986 as a Member of the House of Representatives; a law that has never been enforced by the U.S. Government and never has been obeyed by the people who were supposed to obey the law.”