On the recordNovember 18, 2013
to the senior Senator from Michigan, the chairman of this most prestigious and important committee, what I think would be a real shame is if we wind up having to file cloture on the bill as it is written. I know the committee did great work. They worked very hard, and the vast majority of the time they did it on a bipartisan basis to get the bill to where it is now. It would be a shame to have to file cloture on the bill itself. I would hope that if we have to do that, we can get cloture on it and get on with the conference. But I am very troubled. Today is Monday, and I would be happy to renew my request as soon as I get here in the morning, but I would hope that the people who are working on these two important pieces of legislation at the very least would come and start talking about them. Everyone knows what the amendments are. They may not be able to pass a test on every word in the amendments, but we know the concept of the amendments. Let them come and start talking about these amendments. To this stage, they have been negotiated and debated in the press. Let's debate them here on the Senate floor.
