Political Quotes

“I realize the Senator from Oklahoma has the floor and he wishes to continue with his amendments. I wish to speak to all the Members who are on the floor as well as those who are in their offices, because, as everyone knows--again, to hearken back to the last time around we did this--we had 73 amendments. Not all of them took a recorded vote, but we did come up with a finite list. It was 73. It was a big list, but we came up with a list. That is what we are trying to do now. We have been working with colleagues. We want that list. No one wants that more than I and Senator Cochran--to come up with a group of amendments, so everyone knows what we will be voting on so we can begin to move through that. I indicated we had included in the bill the amendments we had voted on the floor the last time. I did make one error that my staff reminded me of. There was one we did vote on that is not in here, which was the amendment of Senator McCain on catfish. That was not included, in deference to those who had objected. But everything else that was of substance, as I understand, is in the underlying bill. I also do want to note the distinguished Senator from Oklahoma did have a significant amendment that came very early in this process. In fact, it was one I did not support, but he won his amendment. We could have blocked it. I could have objected, because I don't support the policy, but I did not do that. So the Senator's amendment did pass, even though I voted no and do not support it.…”