Bill Nelson: “This filibuster issue is so important to me as I project how it can be taken away from me as I try to protect the…”

“This filibuster issue is so important to me as I project how it can be taken away from me as I try to protect the interests of Florida. I was about to point out that although the Secretary of the Interior 2 weeks ago, when I requested in the next 5-year plan that she extend the same protections of no additional drilling in the Gulf of Mexico off of Florida, would not give me that assurance. I now see, as the result of a vote today in the House of Representatives, an amendment offered for oil and gas drilling off of the State of Florida. It may have been this amendment, may have been just for gas drilling. That is the proverbial camel's nose under the tent. All drilling, happily, in that amendment failed in the House of Representatives, but the Bush administration's intent is now clear since the Secretary of Interior would not give me that assurance that she gave me back in 2001. It is their intent to start drilling off the coast of Florida in the Gulf of Mexico, which brings me back to the filibuster. I don't want to lose this precedent of 216 years in the Senate, to lose this right of a filibuster. If we do it with regard to these judges, then what is coming next, they will take away our right to stand up here for the interests of our States? This is a matter of tremendous gravity. It affects all of us. I yield the floor.”