Political Quotes

“earlier today I took the floor. Senator Cruz was here, and he raised an objection to a unanimous consent request that I had not yet made. I am not going to make that unanimous consent request, but I am going to mention, as the ranking member of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee--and our Presiding Officer is one of the distinguished members of the committee--that there are 14 nominations that have been approved by the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, some a long time ago, by unanimous vote. These are not controversial nominations. Each of the individuals is well qualified for the position. The Senate Foreign Relations Committee, under the leadership of Senator Corker, reported these nominations out in a very timely way. Each of those in their own position is critically important to our national security. Having a confirmed ambassador in a country is critically important to our national security. Having the No. 4 person at the State Department confirmed is critically important in negotiating security issues. It is our responsibility to take these nominees up and to act on them and to confirm them so that we can have confirmed positions. I will just mention a few. As I said, I had given notice that I would ask unanimous consent, and Senator Cruz indicated that he would object and actually came to the floor to object. But we have to get this done. The reason we are not voting has nothing to do with these individuals--nothing, not one thing.…”