Political Quotes

“Madam President, it bears repeating. Senator Carper is very modest, and he is a humble man, but he has done a lot to help bring us to this point. I think he is one of the Senators here who work the best across the aisle, and that is what has happened. We have had a lot of Senators who have wanted to work across the aisle on this bill. As Senator Carper knows, on the Environment and Public Works Committee, he was joined by Senator Booker, Senator Whitehouse, and Senator Merkley in terms of helping to mark up the bill and make it a better product. When the Senator talks about going across the finish line, with 53 cosponsors about evenly divided between Democrat and Republican--I think it is almost exactly even--that sends a signal to our majority leader that this has tremendous support in both caucuses. I believe the Presiding Officer here is on the bill. So everybody standing on the Senate floor right now is on what is a good, bipartisan product. So we are going to work very carefully in the next couple of days to see that attention is brought to this, and hopefully we will have an opportunity to have a debate with amendments and then meet with the House. The House, as Senator Carper knows, has already passed a piece of legislation, I think 378 to 1--1 person in the House opposing it. So we have a bill that is alive and ready to go, and we need to get it out of the Senate so we can conference it with the House and get it to the President's desk for his signature.…”