Political Quotes

“Mr. President, I am going to give a recap of where we are and then note the absence of a quorum as we sort through our amendments. This is the second day of the Senate's consideration of S. 1086, the child care and development block grant reauthorization on which 1.5 million American children depend, including 20,000 children from the State of Maryland. We have been working on this bill for over 2 years, and now it is our second day of moving this legislation. We have made an impressive amount of progress. Yesterday the Senate agreed to nine amendments--three by rollcall vote and six by voice vote. We had a great group of bipartisan amendments. Of the nine amendments that were adopted, three were sponsored by Republicans, two were sponsored by Democrats, and four amendments were bipartisan. The amendments yesterday improved the underlying bill. They streamlined Federal early learning programs; made sure tribes get the funding they need; required States to develop childcare disaster plans; and ensures that CDBG, as it is known, also serves an often much-overlooked population--foster care. We also had a healthy debate on the floor in which women Senators came down to show their support for this bipartisan bill. Today we hope to continue our due deliberation of amendments. Last night we identified approximately 29 to 30 amendments that remain. It is the hope of the chair and ranking member that sometime today--around 11:30 a.m., before the lunch--we will move to votes.…”