Tom Harkin: “I am sorry the Senator from Kentucky is objecting to our meeting. I say to my friend from Kentucky, the one thing I…”

“I am sorry the Senator from Kentucky is objecting to our meeting. I say to my friend from Kentucky, the one thing I believe both Senator Enzi and I did and other members of our committee on both sides of the aisle did to get this bill to where it is was to put aside ideology--to put aside ideology--to do what is best for our kids. I believe the HELP Committee--on both sides of the aisle, Senator Enzi and I on both sides--has done everything possible to move the bill in a considerate, logical legislative manner. We started on this last year. I say to my friend from Kentucky, we had 10 hearings last year-- 10 good, long hearings. We had superintendents. We had teachers. We had principals. We had broad input from across America as to what they wanted in a reauthorization bill. I am sorry the Senator was not here last year, but the Senate is a continuing body. Does that mean every 2 years we have to start all over from scratch every time? So we had all our hearings last year. And that was cleared again with Senator Enzi and me. We talked about: Well, lets get the hearings out of the road, and this year we could focus on putting the bill together. So we had our hearings. I say to my friend, we brought in teachers, principals, superintendents from all over America. Then, starting in January, we began a time-honored process whereby the chair and ranking member started working on putting the bill together with our professional staff.…”