Roy Blunt: “here we are again. It seems to be just the same act in the same play, the same time. Why are we having this vote today?…”

“here we are again. It seems to be just the same act in the same play, the same time. Why are we having this vote today? I really don't know. Many of our Members believe it's because the TV ads, the radio ads have already been bought in their districts, and if they didn't have this vote today somehow that money might be wasted. I don't know that I believe that. Many of our Members believe we're having the vote on a day when seven Republicans from California can't be here to make our ``no'' votes on this bill appear to be less than they really are. In fact, I asked that this bill not be voted on today for that reason. What I wonder is why we weren't allowed to see the bill. If this bill is such a great bill, if this bill solved these problems, what would have been the harm of seeing the bill? In fact, a lot of the debate today would have been a different debate if the bill would have been laid down last night and we'd have had the vote next Wednesday or next Thursday. This idea that somehow we have to get it done before November 16 because that's the day that this extension ends doesn't make any sense to anybody. We're going to be here well beyond that. Once again we go through this process where we're told we've checked the boxes, but then when you look at where the boxes have been checked, they really don't do the job. We ought to get to poor kids first.…”