Political Quotes

“this afternoon we will vote on whether to go to conference on H.R. 240. For Senators who want to return to regular order, this is their chance. Regular order is the opportunity to offer, to have debate on, and to vote on amendments. We have already established on earlier legislation that the majority party is willing to return to regular order and to offer an open amendment process. So part of establishing that regular order process is, as I say, the opportunity to offer amendments, to have a debate, and to vote. It is that process which should and has historically produced the best legislation not only here in the Senate but in the House--in this Congress--on behalf of the American people. Another part of regular order, though, is conference committees. When the House passes a bill and the Senate passes a bill and there are differences in the bill, how do we resolve the differences in the bill? We go to a conference committee. So that is what is before us right now. This vote is simply to send H.R. 240 to a conference committee so the House and the Senate can work on the legislation. Our colleagues on the other side of the aisle filibustered H.R. 240. Only when amendments were limited to one amendment did they allow us to proceed to the bill. That is unfortunate, but clearly it was done to protect the President's Executive order on immigration. The irony is that the President's overreach should not be a partisan issue.…”