Roy Blunt: “in reserving the right to object, my colleague Senator Paul is well-intended in this recommendation, and I listened to…”

“in reserving the right to object, my colleague Senator Paul is well-intended in this recommendation, and I listened to it carefully, as I am sure others did. The Page Program, which has been in effect since 1829, has become a program of both opportunity and education and is a program that the Page Board, the Senate Page Board, has responsibility for. I would say, in looking at the immediate future, the pages who are here now, the pages who have agreed to be pages in the summer, and the pages, I think, who are in line to be pages in the fall--and their families--have all looked at these recommendations. They have all decided they are recommendations they would be able to meet. Maybe more importantly, they also have decided to make that family decision for their children to be here and be pages as high school juniors, perhaps, because of the standards that have been set that they are well aware of. I would hope that Senator Paul would continue to talk to the Page Board. I think the Page Board has a very important job to do. They accept an incredible responsibility of the relationships that they have decided to enter into between the pages, their families, and the Page Board in representing the Senate. That Board has some oversight from the Rules Committee, and I yield to the chairman of the Rules Committee. The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from Minnesota.”