Political Quotes

“Mr. President, I am here to talk about a provision in the appropriations bills that was unveiled just yesterday. I thank my colleagues for their work on these bills--it has been incredible--and the bipartisan effort in the Senate and the House. I know how tough these negotiations can be. There are so many good things in it that I am sure I will be talking about myself over the next few weeks. But I want to focus on one thing that I hope we can still clarify and change. I don't think it was the outcome that people thought when they voted on the floor a little over a year ago on something. This sort of seemingly technical language that was included in this appropriations bill on our Antitrust Division of the Department of Justice basically upends the work that Senator Grassley and I have done--many others joining us--to update the merger fees after I think it is over 20 years. We worked very hard on this over a 5-year period and got buy-in from the Judiciary Committee. We worked with Senator Lee and had a combination amendment that got significant support in this body--well over 80 votes--that focused on Senator Lee's venue amendment that he and I had to make sure that cases in the tech arena stayed in the States, antitrust cases stayed in the States where they were brought; then, secondly, that we actually funded a division that has been underfunded by many measures with 300-plus less employees than they had in 1979. That is the Antitrust Division of the Justice Department.…”