Political Quotes

“And let me say again that not only on TSCA, as Senator Carper held, we were going to have speeches earlier in the week, but we were unable, with some of the scheduling issues and everything, to get down here and talk as a group. We had Senator Whitehouse, who was going to come down, and Senator Merkley was going to come down, as well as several of the key members of the Environment and Public Works Committee who played such a big role in terms of moving this bill forward. The person who really kicked this off was Senator Frank Lautenberg. What a star in terms of bipartisanship. I remember working with him when I was on the Environment and Public Works Committee for a long period of time on a very substantive piece of legislation. It was so good, we couldn't find much bipartisanship on it, and he understood that. It got out of the committee. It wasn't ready for prime time here on the floor, and so what we ended up doing was saying we need to go back to square one. Senator Lautenberg took that very seriously. He met with Senator Vitter. Senator Manchin played a role in that, and Senator Manchin was one of the ones who were going to come to the floor to talk, and he played a role in getting them together. As a result, a bipartisan bill came out in the last Congress. That has continued now for almost 2\1/2\ years, and it is a very good product. Madam President, the American people want a government that works, not one that shuts down to send a message.…”