Dick Durbin: “I would like to propose a question to the Senator from Connecticut, but before I do, first I would like to thank the…”

“I would like to propose a question to the Senator from Connecticut, but before I do, first I would like to thank the Senator who is presiding at this early morning hour. I thank him and his fellow Senators who made this possible. A special thanks to staff. They have been thanked before, but they should be thanked again for their diligence and patience during this conversation and debate on the floor of the Senate. And a special thanks to the pages who stayed late, late tonight and will have stories to tell about that night when the Senate went into the morning and we were there. So you will be able to tell those stories when you get back home to your families and friends, but it is a historic debate and it is an important debate and it is one that will affect your lives and the lives of the many people you treasure on this Earth. We come to this floor at this early morning hour--a quarter to 1 here in Washington, DC, as the Senator from Connecticut noted, more than 13 hours after he first took the floor--to discuss the critically important issue about the safety and security of America. When I think about what we are facing here, as has been said by the Senator from Maine, we are dealing with a new strategy by terrorists. I can remember the day of 9/11, 2001, in the room just a few feet away, when a little after 9 in the morning we quickly turned on the television to see that planes were crashing into the World Trade Center in New York.…”