Political Quotes

“Mr. President, I thank my colleagues, both from Alabama and from Maine, for coming down to the floor and saying: Let's do the work of the Senate. Let's advance to this Department of Homeland Security bill, let's offer amendments, let's have the debate. Let's fund the Department. But let's make sure we do it in the right way, and where we protect the checks and balances built into this government by our forefathers. For the last few days I have come to the floor to call attention to the importance of voting ``yes'' on the motion to proceed to the Department of Homeland Security appropriations bill for 2015--H.R. 240. I wish that weren't the case. I had hoped that by now we would be much closer to passing a funding bill for the Department; that the Senate would have proceeded to the DHS appropriations bill, and that we could begin the process of debate, of considering amendments, and of developing consensus--of getting our work done. Yet here we are on the third day, just trying to proceed to funding the Department of Homeland Security--a Department that everyone agrees is vital. That is what this bill does: It funds the Department fully and completely, and it does it in the right way by enforcing the law. I don't have to tell my colleagues that the defining attributes of the Senate come from the Senators' ability to debate and to amend legislation. Debate and amendment. The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator's time has expired.”