Political Quotes

“Mr. President, in reserving the right to object, I come to the floor to, first, compliment Senator Durbin on his remarkable story and his family's story about legal immigration to this country. It is something I support. I think we should all consider it a compliment when people want to leave the countries of their births to come to the United States, for they know what we know--that it is a great place in which to live and thrive. I have a concern with the unanimous consent request before us, the RELIEF Act. Senator Durbin and I have worked on a couple of immigration issues on which we have bridged the gap but have not quite gotten there. First off, it could lay the groundwork for a significant increase in legal immigration, but I am also concerned with the mechanics we find ourselves in right now. As I understand it, the RELIEF Act has six cosponsors--all Democrats. Yet there is another bill that is moving through the Senate right now that was offered by Senator Lee. It has been offered in other Congresses, but it is actually making headway. It has 35 cosponsors, and 15 of them are Democrats. They include Senator Harris, of California, and Senator Duckworth, the junior Senator of Illinois. I believe this is a very narrowly focused effort to address a lot of the concerns that Senator Durbin has. I do not believe Senator Durbin has the support of the Senate to take this through regular order at this point, let alone through unanimous consent.…”