Amy Klobuchar: “following the tragic collapse of the 35W bridge in Minneapolis that took place yesterday, August 1, 2007, I returned to…”

“following the tragic collapse of the 35W bridge in Minneapolis that took place yesterday, August 1, 2007, I returned to Minnesota this morning to learn all of the facts, and pledge the necessary Federal resources for the victims, the investigation, and the repair. By returning to Minnesota, I was, unfortunately, unable to be in Washington, DC, to vote on the motion to invoke cloture on the motion to concur in the House Amendment S. 1; and the motion to concur with the House Message to S. 1. Had the tragedy in my State not taken me back to Minnesota, I would have voted for the motion to invoke cloture as well as the underlying bill. In short, I would have voted to change the course in Washington. When I arrived in Washington in January, my husband, daughter and I pulled up in our family Saturn, loaded with my husband's college dishes and a shower curtain that I found in the basement from 1980. But we brought a little more than dishes and shower curtains. We brought a commitment for change something the people of our State Democrats, Independents, and Republicans, from Worthington to Moorhead to Duluth to Rochester called for very clearly and loudly in November. We also brought a Minnesota moral compass, grounded in a simple notion of Minnesota fairness: A notion that all people should be on equal footing in the halls of Congress.”