Political Quotes

“Madam President, the Senate functions best when Members are free to come to the floor and offer amendments, debate the amendments, and have a vote on the amendments. I might even share Senator Wyden's concerns about that particular piece of legislation. I am not sure. It is a judiciary issue. The vice chair is on the Judiciary Committee. It is an amendment that we were not able to pass in the managers' amendment. But as the vice chair and I said at the beginning of this process, we would like the Senate to function like it is designed, where every Member feels invested, and if they have a great idea, come down, introduce it as an amendment, debate it, and let your colleagues vote up or down against it. If we can't move forward with a process like that, then it is difficult to see how in a reasonable amount of time we are going to complete this agenda. So I would only urge my colleague from Oregon that there is nothing to be scared about. This is a process we will go through, and a nongermane amendment, which I think this would be listed as--I look for my staff. It would be a nongermane amendment--requiring 60 votes, a threshold that the Senate designed to pass practically anything. So I urge him to reconsider at some point, and I will make a similar unanimous consent request once he has had an opportunity to think about it.…”