Al Franken: “I also respect my good friend from North Carolina, and I want to thank him for his vote on my amendment. I think he is…”

“I also respect my good friend from North Carolina, and I want to thank him for his vote on my amendment. I think he is going to like some of my other amendments too. I wish to take issue too with one thing he said. I think he said it in a moment where, if he thought about what he said, he might reconsider it. I had commented that I have spent more time probably on this bill than on any other, and I have spent a lot of time on the Affordable Care Act. The Senator from North Carolina then said, if I had spent more time on this bill than any other, that is a pathetic commentary or a sad commentary because we just got this bill the other day. The fact is--and I think the Senator would acknowledge this--work on any piece of legislation doesn't start when the bill is introduced. My work on this bill started very soon after I arrived in the Senate. My work started with a bill I coauthored with Orrin Hatch, which is going to be an amendment. It is an amendment to recruit and train principals for high-needs schools. We have had schools I have seen turned around by principals because principals can create the ethos of the school. They have so much to do with selecting the teachers and transforming a school. This amendment would create a program where we recruit people who want to be principals in high-needs schools and have them monitored--if they haven't been a principal before--by a principal who has successfully turned around a high-needs school.…”