Political Quotes

“following my remarks and those of the Republican leader, the Senate will be in a period of morning business until 5:30 p.m. Following morning business, the Senate will proceed to executive session and proceed to a series of four cloture votes on three U.S. district court judges from Florida and one from Vermont. 60-vote Threshold We tried all last week--I am sorry to say unsuccessfully--to consider three very important appropriations bills. These bills are very significant because they provide this great government of ours with the resources it needs to serve the American people. I think we have had enough sequestrations and government shutdowns, and I hope my Republican colleagues aren't headed in that direction again. Given the importance of the appropriations legislation and the need to keep our government operating, I had hoped we could have a cooperative amendment process and participation from all Senators. Our vote last Tuesday on the motion to proceed was promising, as 95 Senators voted to move forward on these three important bills. However, it is a shame we had to file cloture. If we had not had to file cloture, which resulted in 95 Senators voting to move forward on very important bills, we could have saved 3 days' worth of downtime and doing nothing. But that has happened for many years now with Republicans blocking, obstructing, and misdirecting basically everything we do here.…”