Political Quotes

“I rise this evening to urge my colleagues to oppose the nomination of Alvaro Bedoya to be a Commissioner of the Federal Trade Commission. Recently, the Commerce Committee deadlocked on this nomination, with all Republican members voting no and all Democratic members voting yes. So it will take a discharge petition here on the Senate floor to move Mr. Bedoya's nomination further. If our Democratic colleagues are successful, Mr. Bedoya will become the fifth tie-breaking Commissioner of the FTC. Let me just observe, as someone who has been on the Commerce Committee for years and years here in the U.S. Senate, that the Federal Trade Commission, which is where Mr. Bedoya would become a member, has always approached issues and addressed the public in a spirit of bipartisanship. Unlike with the Federal Communications Commission, the FCC, where we are used to the vote being 2 to 3, in a very partisan manner--that is the FCC for you--we haven't had that, over time, with the Federal Trade Commission. The Federal Trade Commission has had a tradition of bipartisanship. They have had a tradition of issuing policy statements with all five of them participating and issuing statements to the Commerce Committee, before testimony, with the one statement speaking for the entire Federal Trade Commission. Mr. Bedoya's records show that he would bring that sort of partisanship that we have had at the FCC to the Federal Trade Commission, and I hope we can avoid that.…”