Political Quotes

“Mr. President, I see my colleague from North Dakota Senator Hoeven is here so I will be brief. I wish to pick up on something Senator Enzi talked about, which is that the American people are expecting us to get something done. I couldn't agree with him more. That is why I have been on the floor for the last 3 days, along with my colleague from Ohio Senator Portman, who has worked so hard with me to put together an energy efficiency bill to address the very real challenges facing this country around energy security, and energy efficiency is the cheapest, fastest way to deal with our energy needs. We have multiple bipartisan amendments to this legislation. We have a lot of bipartisan support for this legislation, with more than 260 groups, as varied as the U.S. Chamber of Commerce and the National Resources Defense Council, supporting this legislation. I hope all those people who would like to have a different conversation around health care, or whatever else, will be willing to postpone that conversation so we can deal with the bill before us, which is the Energy Savings and Industrial Competitiveness Act. I appreciate all the work of my colleague from North Dakota, Senator Hoeven. He has been willing to engage with us on this legislation and I urge all of us to get to the bill at hand and deal with energy issues and let us have those other debates at the appropriate time. Now is not the appropriate time.”