Political Quotes

“at 11 o'clock today there is, in my estimation, a very important vote. It is a vote that will allow the Senate to move on and complete another appropriations bill. This will make four bills we have completed during this year. Last year at this time we had completed eight appropriations bills, and it was done, as the Presiding Officer will recall, by the minority diving in and helping the majority pass those bills. A lot of them--as all appropriations bills are--were very contentious and had a lot of amendments tied to them. In the minority, I was given the assignment directly by our leader and the ranking member, the now-chairman, of the Appropriations Committee to do what I could to work through these amendments. And we did a good job. We helped the then-majority, I repeat, pass eight appropriations bills. We are struggling to get through four. And we are going to do five before the break. I certainly hope we can do that. We can do it. The leader said we are going to do it. This vote at 11 o'clock will terminate a very prolonged debate on something I believe we should have gotten out of here and taken, as is done in all legislative processes, to conference, where it would be worked out. The issue of contention is one that deals with NAFTA, the North American Free Trade Agreement, and how trucks coming from Mexico are treated in the United States.”