On the recordDecember 17, 2010
I rise to pay tribute. This bill is named in his honor. This will be the last bill that he will shepherd as chairman. Two of the Members of the minority side have spoken and lamented the process that we are following today. I shared that lamentation. And I say to my friends, the reason we are in this pickle is because members of your party in the United States Senate would not allow us to proceed under regular order even though regular order had a majority of votes in the United States Senate. So it is nice to complain and wring our hands, but if obstructionism is the objective in the other body, then regular order has been denied us. We have an option. We can say they denied us regular order and, therefore, we failed; or, we can do what we did last night--take something that's not perfect but is better than inaction.
