Bill Nelson: “my compliments to the majority leader on the way in which he offered leadership for the Senate on a rather rigorous and…”

“my compliments to the majority leader on the way in which he offered leadership for the Senate on a rather rigorous and very lengthy discussion of the budget over the last several days. My thanks to him for the hospitality he provided in the course of a very long evening. And my compliments and congratulations to the chairman of the Budget Committee, Senator Nickles, and to Senator Conrad, the ranking member, for the extraordinarily bipartisan fashion, as the hours of the evening wore on and as nerves began to fray, of keeping a calm and cool deliberation in the midst of 300 amendments that had been filed. Those 300 amendments would have kept us here all day today, all day Saturday, all day Sunday, and well into Monday. Yet with that leadership, the chairman and the ranking member were able to get reasonable minds to come together and find consensus and therefore withdraw many amendments. That was a testimony and showed the Senate working its will. I asked for this time because I want to comment on one part of the budget that was passed last night. In the wee hours of the morning, an amendment was passed by unanimous consent, sponsored by Senator Sessions, Senator Shelby, this Senator from Florida, and Senator Graham of Florida. It was an amendment to bring the level of funding for NASA provided in the budget resolution up to the level requested by the President.”