Political Quotes

“Mr. President, we are now considering S. 3187, the FDA user fees legislation. There is an agreement now reached to complete this legislation today. Under the agreement, debate time will expire at 2 p.m. today, but if we are able to yield back time, up to 12 rollcall votes could begin earlier in order to complete action on the bill and to have a couple of votes in relation to the student loan interest rate hike. We will notify everyone if time is yielded back, but people should be aware of the need to come here--we hope before noon--to have a couple of votes. There will be no votes between 1 and 2 o'clock because of meetings both sides have. We also worked out a tentative agreement yesterday on flood insurance, which is important to 6 million people. We need to get that done today also. I hope we can get that done. I was pleased yesterday to reach an agreement with the Republican leader on how to move forward with this FDA bill. This legislation addresses shortages of lifesaving medicines by establishing a protocol to accomplish just that. It will ensure that FDA resources are there to approve new drugs and medical devices quickly and efficiently. We are going to consider, as I indicated, a number of relevant amendments. I am optimistic we will pass this strong, bipartisan bill. This week has been productive. We have not had to break or try to break a single Republican filibuster. That is a good day in Washington. It doesn't happen very often. I hope it happens more often.…”