Political Quotes

“Mr. President, I thank my distinguished colleague, the ranking member on the Foreign Relations Committee, for his remarks and for the conversation we had before. I appreciate that, and I look forward to making this happen in the very early part of the new Congress. But I will just simply say that the Board, of course, is comprised of nominees recommended by the majority and the minority, and, ideally, that is how they would move forward. I am ready to be supportive of moving forward on other nominees for this position as well. But as has been said, the reality is that the minority has yet to make their recommendations, despite having had more than 2 years to do so--2 years. So, in a sense, it is not fair to reject those who are waiting and went through the process and did their disclosures and everything else and have been hanging out there because the minority has not chosen to make their nominations. I understand the Senator is objecting on behalf of his leadership. I just hope that this draws attention to the Republican leadership so that they, hopefully, will come up with their two names so that as we start the new session of Congress, we can get this done right away. With that, I yield the floor. I suggest the absence of a quorum. The PRESIDING OFFICER. The clerk will call the roll. The legislative clerk proceeded to call the roll.”