Political Quotes

“I made a commitment to proceed to a 5-year flood insurance bill following the farm bill. We have done that. It is the right thing to do. It is an extremely important piece of legislation. So I have lived up to that commitment. I had hoped the broad support we have for this extremely important bill would allow us to reach an agreement and finish the bill in a relatively short period of time. As everyone knows, the senior Senator from Arkansas has had some issues with the bill. I have suggested that he have a vote. From talking to my Republican friends, they do not have a problem with that, giving him a vote. Unfortunately, as happens around here more often than I would like, we have not been able to reach agreement because a small group of Republicans is stopping us from doing this. So my options are really very limited at this stage. I can file cloture and put at risk our ability to complete action on student loans and the Transportation bill. That is what it would do because if I file cloture, we will have to have a cloture vote on this on Thursday. And I would have to file cloture twice because there is the bill and there is the substitute, which everybody agreed was the right thing to do to move forward on the substitute. That is two votes, so at least 60 hours. The flood bill is a very important piece of legislation. It is not something we have to complete the day after tomorrow, but it is something we have to complete a month from now.…”