Political Quotes

“Mr. President, for the benefit of all Senators, we have been trying in the last 24 hours or more to work our way through the amendments to get to a vote on this most important bill we are dealing with, the small business innovation bill, a bill that has already created thousands of jobs around the country. It is an extremely important bill. We need to reauthorize this bill. It is a very small amount of money. It generates a lot of jobs. But we have been stuck. I think we have had a breakthrough that we can at least, hopefully, work toward conclusion of this extremely difficult matter. I have spoken with one Senator who had a concern about an issue that has actually been held up--it is a Republican amendment held up by a Republican--not allowing us to have a vote on it. I think we have worked our way through that. Now the floor staff is trying to come up with a consent agreement that would work toward having a vote develop the will of the Senate on the 1099, the tax reporting requirement. Also, there are a number of amendments people wish to have votes on dealing with EPA standards. I think we are at a place where we can perhaps set up some votes. With the difficulty of all the things we have today, including a briefing by the Secretary of State, the Secretary of Defense, and the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs on Libya, I think realistically we will not have any votes this afternoon. Tomorrow morning we have the funeral in New York for Geraldine Ferraro.…”