Political Quotes

“Madam President, first of all at the beginning, let me thank two of my colleagues who have worked incredibly hard with me on the issue of Senate rules reform--Senator Merkley from Oregon and Senator Tom Harkin from Iowa. Senator Harkin will be joining us at some point. I also wish to thank the Chair. One of the very early leaders on the constitutional option on Senate reform of the rules was Senator Jeanne Shaheen from New Hampshire. She is in the chair today. I know she cares about this a lot. I know she wants to see this move forward. What we are trying to do is follow what has been the history in the Senate. At various points in the Senate, there has been respect for each other, the ability to get legislation on the floor, to have debate. With the rules, it is pretty extraordinary when we look at the history. When we look at the history of the Senate rules, one of the things that is very clear in the movements in the fifties, sixties, and seventies to consider rules reform, both leaders would allow proposals onto the floor, allow these proposals onto the floor to be voted upon. We have the extraordinary situation today--extraordinary, and we will see when our colleagues show up--where our friends on the other side of the aisle are basically saying: We don't want your rules reform on the floor today. We are not going to allow that to happen. As everybody in the Senate knows, we have to have unanimous consent to do this.…”