Harry Reid: “I consider myself very fortunate today. Except for going to a conference here and there, and a few other things that had…”

“I consider myself very fortunate today. Except for going to a conference here and there, and a few other things that had me go off the floor, I have had the opportunity to listen to almost everything that went on today, either from my seat in the Senate Chamber or in the Cloakroom. How fortunate I am. The Senator from West Virginia is to be commended for initiating this debate on what American Government is all about. When the history books are written, people will review what took place during this debate, the high level of debate and the exchange between the Senator from New York and the Senator from West Virginia, both with years of wisdom, years of knowledge, and years of experience. People will look back at this consideration in the textbooks. I stepped out to go over to the Senator's Interior Appropriations Subcommittee. The administration was there complaining about report language as to what the intent of the Congress was. It is hard for me to fathom they could do that. I don't want to embarrass anybody from the administration, but I spoke to two people from the administration. I said: What in the world are you trying to do? Are you trying to tell this subcommittee, this legislative entity, what our intent is? That is our responsibility as legislators, not this administration's responsibility. We have report language in bills so that people can look and find out what our intent is.”