Roy Blunt: “I wish to take a moment to thank Senator Kohl. The comments the majority leader made about him were certainly proven…”

“I wish to take a moment to thank Senator Kohl. The comments the majority leader made about him were certainly proven right in all of our relationships. I thank him for his guidance and encouragement throughout this process. We have had open communication and worked together to address the amendments brought forward by our colleagues. While we didn't agree on every single thing in the bill, we certainly agreed to be agreeable about that and see if we couldn't produce a work product people have a right to expect of the Senate. So the passage of these three bills is significant. I certainly wish to thank Senator Kohl's staff--Galen Fountain, Jessica Frederick, Dianne Nellor, and Bob Ross--for their contributions, and I thank my staff: Stacy McBride, Mary Koskinen, Brian Diffel, Zach Kinne, and Christina Weger. Because this has been a process that has involved two other subcommittees, I wish to express my thanks to my colleagues for their hard work and cooperation on the other parts of this bill: Senators Mikulski and Hutchison and their staffs on the Commerce, Justice, Science Subcommittee and Senators Murray and Collins and their staffs on the Subcommittee on Transportation, Housing and Urban Development. The floor staff has worked hard over the course of the last several days. Often, that work goes unnoticed. But managing this bill has not been easy.…”