Political Quotes

“Mr. President, first I wish to commend the Chair of the Small Business Committee. She has done an extraordinary job in bringing this legislation to the floor in a bipartisan fashion, which I think is so essential to ensuring the passage of this legislation which, suffice it to say, has been long overdue. It has been on a long journey since 2008 in terms of extensions and reextensions, but we have never been able to accomplish a reauthorization for a variety of reasons which I will explain later in my statement. But I do wish to congratulate the Chair for working mightily on both sides of the aisle and in the committee, accommodating bipartisanship by allowing the new members of the committee--particularly on our side of the aisle where we have five new members of the committee--who were not able to have the opportunity to review this legislation as new Members of the Senate because we had passed this unanimously in the last session of Congress. So she did hold a hearing and a markup to accommodate those views and give them a chance to review this legislation as well as to amend it in the committee. I know some of the Members will have amendments they will offer on the floor as well. So I wish to thank the Chair for accommodating those various issues and the members of the committee as they attempted their new duties as members of the Small Business Committee.…”