Political Quotes

“I will say to the Senator from Indiana, I recognize that he is new to this body, and what he has seen in the Senate is not the Senate that I was elected to. There was a time--the Senator may find it hard to believe--when we actually brought bills to the floor. We allowed amendments. Before that, of course, the committee had done its work. We allowed amendments on the floor up or down, and we ended up deliberating and voting on measures. If they passed here, we then had a conference, and, miraculously, at some point, they became law. That has not happened here for a long, long time, and I don't think you have seen it. Maybe the Defense authorization bill is as close as it gets, though we don't have active amendments there. In this circumstance, on this bill which I brought before the Senate Judiciary Committee 18 years ago--18 years ago--it has passed the House of Representatives and is sitting on Senator McConnell's desk for a year. It has been referred to the Senate Judiciary Committee, and I cochair the Immigration Subcommittee with your colleague, who is standing to your right, from Texas. We have met once in the last 2 years--once--and have never taken this up. So for the sake of the people affected by it, asking that it come to the floor is not an unreasonable request. Their lives are tied up in it. So I would love to see regular order. We haven't seen it in so long. Most people wouldn't recognize it. But I understand your objection.…”