Political Quotes

“as I indicated, Senator Feinstein and Senator Alexander are working very hard to come up with an agreement that we can move forward with on the Energy and Water bill. I am terribly disappointed we weren't able to do the so-called minibus, consisting of three appropriations bills, as we did a couple weeks ago. It is too bad, unfortunate, that we were not able to do so, but an objection was raised that caused us not to be able to do that. They have not been able to reach an agreement tonight, so we will continue working and, hopefully, tomorrow something good will happen. It is my understanding the Republicans have run a hotline with their Members to see if they can reduce the number of amendments on the Energy and Water bill. Remember, we can't legislate on an appropriations bill, and it has to be germane, so at least we have those restrictions. I would also say that while my friends on the Republican side are working through amendments--if, in fact, there is an agreement--there are Democrats who also want to offer amendments, so it is not going to be just amendments offered by Republicans. If, in fact, we can work something out, Democrats also wish to offer amendments. So I hope, and I am cautiously optimistic, that the two fine Senators can work through this morass we have and move forward. I sure hope we can do that. We are not going to spend a lot of time on this. We wasted most of the day on procedural issues relating to this.…”