Political Quotes

“I think it is important to remember why we are here today. More than a year ago, the President took an unprecedented step despite all of the discussion from the other side of the aisle. No other President made a recess appointment when the Senate was in session, in pro forma session, or any session. So despite how many times President Reagan or President George H.W. Bush or President George W. Bush made recess appointments, this was unprecedented. Now, it's still an open question to be decided. The D.C. Court of Appeals made a ruling that the President's appointees to the National Labor Relations Board were unconstitutional. And it's going to be an ongoing debate, I'm sure, going forward for days and weeks, the sooner the better, to determine what it means under article I, section 5, clause 2 of the United States Constitution, where it says the Senate is vested with the power to ``determine the rules of its proceedings.'' The Senate determined that the rules of its proceeding said that the Senate was in session. We heard mention today by a number of my colleagues that Senator Reid had announced, when President Bush was in office, that the Senate was going to stay in pro forma session in order to keep the President from making recess appointments. That's an important debate going forward.…”