David Perdue: “I rise tonight to speak about the opportunity our country has to move this country forward. I appreciate the comments by…”

“I rise tonight to speak about the opportunity our country has to move this country forward. I appreciate the comments by my good friend from Michigan. I appreciate all the comments in this hallowed ground called the U.S. Senate. But I have to say that while I agree on some points, I disagree on others. The one I am really troubled by tonight is the fact the other side is creating the ultimate shutdown in government right now. We had an election. Our democracy has worked. We have a new person in the White House. We have a new direction for our country. Yet this person in the White House cannot even get his team approved in the U.S. Senate. After some 27 days, I think President Obama had 26 of his Cabinet and other appointees already confirmed. At this point, President Trump has only 13 of his nominees. Quite frankly, had we not turned the Senate on 24/7 over the last few weeks, it would be until June or July of this year before we could get the full slate of just the 15 Cabinet officers confirmed. That is no way to run the Federal Government and, indeed, shows the hypocrisy of the other side. They complain about shut down this and shut down that. What is happening right now in the U.S. Senate is that the other side is shutting down this administration from getting on with the people's business of what they elected him to do.…”