John Kerry: “I will be very brief. I join my colleague in saying that I think what Senator McCain and I and others hoped for was the…”

“I will be very brief. I join my colleague in saying that I think what Senator McCain and I and others hoped for was the opportunity to be able to come to the floor and fight these tough issues. That is what we did. We just had a tough vote. Clearly, some of us had hoped that the outcome would be different, because we had a different view of where the bill might travel. But this by no means prevents us in any way from continuing forward in the process of molding this legislation. This is precisely what the Senate ought to be doing. It ought to be fighting hard over these votes. We ought to be able to come to an understanding of where the 51 votes lie. And then, ultimately, we all know that hopefully we can come together with a piece of legislation that finds a conference committee and, ultimately, both Houses of Congress. So I thank my colleagues for this spirited debate and for the fact that we have voted on two of the most critical issues with respect to this legislation. I thank Senator Durbin for now bringing to the floor, through the leadership, an amendment on the issues of the look-back, one of the other very important issues that needs to be resolved. I am confident that we will have another healthy round of debate on that. I look forward to continuing to proceed.”