Political Quotes

“before the Senator from Montana leaves, I wish to thank him for 3 years of dedicated service and the last 2 in particular as we put together the pieces of shrapnel--which was the original attempt to make Choice work--to be a streamlined program that is going to work for all of our veterans. Jon Tester has been a magnificent ranking member and a magnificent leader. I appreciate very much the kind things he had to say about me, and I say ditto to you. I also thank Chairman Phil Roe, of Tennessee, in the House of Representatives. He has been a stalwart. The reason we are able to act today and tomorrow--as the House did last week--and pass a bill before Memorial Day is because both bodies have worked together, and the votes have been overwhelming. Our motion to invoke cloture this morning was 91 to 4. The House passed this 3 to 1 when they passed it in final passage. So obviously there was a lot of unanimity, but that should not be a disguise for the effort it took. It took a lot of effort to get to where we are and a lot of people doing that effort--a lot of Republicans, a lot of Democrats, a lot of staff. There was a tremendous amount of staff time. We went from doing the art of the impossible to making the art of the possible, with everybody working together, leaving our political weapons at the door, and putting our good heads together to make the Veterans' Administration system better for our veterans.…”