Political Quotes

“Mr. President, what just happened here, just so we can allow the American people to understand, was the really honest, sincere effort on two bills that have overwhelming support--the Land and Water Conservation Fund and the Frank Lautenberg 21st Century Chemical Safety Act--we wanted to get these on the floor so that we can have debate and have amendments. It is exactly what just happened in the last week and part of this week on the cyber security bill. We got a bill on the floor, there were amendments, we invoked cloture, and then we passed the bill at the end of the day. That is what we are trying to do. Individual Senators don't have control of the floor. They do have the ability to come to the floor and ask to put bills on the floor, and that is what happened here. Senator Merkley showed up and asked to put the Land and Water Conservation Fund bill on the floor, with specific outlines, and it was objected to. I asked to put the Frank Lautenberg 21st Century Chemical Safety Act on the floor, and it was objected to. That is the only power we have. The leadership has the ability to control the floor, and that is why we are on the floor speaking about this. So this was in no way a charade; this was an honest, sincere effort to try to do everything we can to make sure that everything is transparent here in terms of who is objecting, who doesn't want things to move forward, and who is for moving forward on two very popular bills. I suggest the absence of a quorum.…”