Political Quotes

“So, in short, Mr. President, there has been an acknowledgment, even by the proponent of the amendment--the Record speaks for itself--that this amendment violates the Constitution. I want everyone walking over here to vote to understand that we said--``we,'' those of us who have talked for years against the amendments offered by my friend from Arkansas; and I will not describe the amendments--we have said that we would offer mining law reform, and we have done that. We have done that. This is a good bill. It calls for a royalty, reforms the patenting process, and reclamation. It is a good bill. We have done that. We have kept faith. I also want everyone to understand, especially on the Democratic side, this constitutional issue, or the underlying amendment, has nothing do with the regulation that we disposed of here yesterday on the Senate floor. This has nothing to do with the issue--some controversy between the Senator from Arkansas and the Senator from Nevada--within the Democratic conference. This is a separate issue dealing with a tax, a tax that has been established with not a single hearing, with no debate whatsoever prior to getting here. It was thrown upon us here, on the Senate floor, this morning. So I say we should go forward with this constitutional point of order. In closing, let me say that the taxpayers of this country, the hundreds of thousands of people that work in mining, do care about mining. Their jobs come from mines. They pay taxes.”