Political Quotes

“Madam President, it has been nearly 2\1/2\ months since the majority leader first brought small business jobs legislation to the floor, and now this bill will pass the Senate through a constrained process under which the majority has continually stunted our ability to offer amendments, dictating to our side which amendments they considered worthy--something I find abhorrent and antithetical to this institution. And I might add, before the votes we held Tuesday on the Johanns and Nelson amendments on the 1099 issue, we had voted on just one amendment during consideration of this bill--an amendment to reinstate an ill-conceived and divisive lending fund into the bill. And with the failed votes on the 1099 issue, we inexplicably and regrettably punted on a chance to help millions of small businesses save the time, cost, and effort of sending billions of new information reporting forms to the IRS and to other businesses. As ranking member of the Senate Small Business Committee, I have come to the floor several times during recent months to express my regret over the procedural twists and turns that have gotten us to this point. Clearly, we have had ample opportunity to consider and pass meaningful small business jobs legislation. Yet time after time other priorities have taken precedence. Most recently, it was the August recess that took us away from Washington for 5 weeks while small businesses continued to call for help. They didn't get an August recess.…”