Political Quotes

“Mr. President, I wish my friend was near as exercised over the year, 18 months, on getting on a bill. It takes us a week to get on a bill because we have to file motions to invoke cloture every time we proceed to a bill. We could save a lot of time if we could get on a bill. One reason there used to be so much, as he said, tradition-- tradition has been spilled into the spillways--is that it was a rare occasion you had to do anything to invoke cloture on a motion to proceed. Now it is what we do every time because the Republicans demand that. In direct answer to the question, I have worked with Senator Roberts and Senator Stabenow. We are trying to get some amendments up. They may be low priority on his part, my friend from Oklahoma, but some people think these are important amendments. The two we just finished, no one can consider those low priority amendments, dealing with foodstamps and with sugar. These are always big deals on this farm bill. So I say to my friend, Senator Roberts and Senator Stabenow are trying to come up with a list. The Republicans are having some kind of a steering meeting or whatever it is now. Maybe the Senator can go and visit with them and try to help us get a list. I am not going to talk out here about a number, but as we did on the highway bill, we have done it on the FDA bill, come up with some amendments. There is plenty of dead time around here, and we don't have to spend a lot of time on the amendments themselves.…”