Political Quotes

“reserving the right to object, let me point out that but for the fact that Senator Cotton filed an amendment--he had every right to do so, and I am not saying he did not--without Senator Corker or the leadership or my knowing that he was going to go through that process, Senator Vitter could have modified his amendment. He is being blocked and needs consent because of actions taken by a Republican Senator. Prior to that action being taken, Senator Corker and I, working with--I think there were somewhere around 60 amendments filed by Republicans and none by Democrats. This is a bill which passed the Senate Foreign Relations Committee 19 to 0, one which incorporated many amendments of the members of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, including the Presiding Officer, who is working with us on this. We worked those out. We are in the process of presenting an additional four amendments for floor action. When that action was taken by a Senator--who had every right to do it because he was trying to get his amendment considered on the floor--in effect, it blocked other amendments from being considered on the floor. When you have one party filing all of the amendments, it is necessary to have an orderly process for these considerations. We were in the process of doing that, and that was blocked. Senator Corker and I regret that we did not have a chance to bring more amendments in an orderly way for consideration on the floor.…”