Cory Booker: “Thank you very much, Mr. President. I want to pick up on that conversation that we were having, in which Senator Murphy…”

“Thank you very much, Mr. President. I want to pick up on that conversation that we were having, in which Senator Murphy laid plain on his charts about larger issues with this bill. I want to get back to the point he was just talking about and that I observed here in the Senate for about 3\1/2\ years, and that is the functioning of this body. I love history. I am one of these guys who doesn't read any fiction any more. I love reading about this country, about its past leaders, about great moments in history. What is interesting about this body is that, being someone who has the privilege to stand on this floor--quite literally, given to me by the State that I love, New Jersey--I walk on this floor and I feel a sense of history every time I am here. It has been 3\1/2\ years, and it hasn't lost its ``wow'' factor for me that I get to stand on this floor. I have to say that I love my State, and in my campaigning, I don't think the issue that I am New Jersey's first Black Senator came up that much. New Jerseyans wanted to know: Would I come down here and fight for them? I was aware of the history of being the fourth African American popularly elected in the history of this body. I came down here as a student of many of the great moments in time on this floor and many of the records that were set. I think some of those records are really germane to this moment right now.…”