Political Quotes

“Mr. President, before we go to the amendments, I want to give a general overview of what it took to get to the point at which we are now. The first thing we had to do was show the leader we could produce 60 or more votes for this bill. This is a big bipartisan bill. Senators Durbin, Lee, Graham, Booker, and I--and I suppose I am leaving out some people--had spoken extensively with our colleagues to address their concerns and to gain their support. As we saw last night, more than 80 Senators showed that they were ready for the debate in the culmination of this bill on the Senate floor. The next step we had to take was to show the people we had broad bipartisan support. On November 15, the FIRST STEP Act was introduced in the Senate. At that point, we had 12 cosponsors. We now have 38 cosponsors. Of course, the question that always comes up is, Will the House of Representatives take any action if we are successful on the floor of the U.S. Senate? Every step of the way, the House was read in on the Senate bill. The leaders in the House of Representatives, who happen to be Representative Collins, Representative Jeffries, and, of course, Chairman Goodlatte of the Judiciary Committee, were all strong partners in this compromise. We have reached a point with the House of Representatives at which, when the Senate passes this bill--and hopefully we will--Speaker Ryan will be ready to act on this bill.…”