Political Quotes

“I again want to commend the Senator from New Hampshire, Senator Ayotte, for her excellent work on this amendment. As I indicated earlier, I think the Portman-Ayotte amendment, which is cosponsored by several other colleagues as well, provides a very important protection against retaliation for those religious organizations that are legitimately exempted under ENDA. I also salute them for broadening the purposes section of the bill to recognize not only the need to address a widespread pattern of discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation, but also they have added a new subsection to recognize that another purpose is to help strengthen civil society and preserve institutional pluralism by providing reasonable accommodations for religious freedom. I think both of those changes strengthen the bill, and I wish to commend the Senator for her leadership on this issue. Madam President, I suggest the absence of a quorum. The PRESIDING OFFICER. The clerk will call the roll. The bill clerk proceeded to call the roll.”