Harry Reid: “I wanted to say, while my counterpart is on the floor, that we in the minority have appreciated the way Senators…”

“I wanted to say, while my counterpart is on the floor, that we in the minority have appreciated the way Senators McConnell and Frist have handled legislation that has been on the floor. We don't agree as to what comes to the floor a lot of times, but the majority, with rare exception, has given us the opportunity, when a matter is brought up, to talk about it, offer amendments, and then give us reasonable time to determine if in fact cloture needs to be invoked on a bill. We appreciate that. In the rush of things this year, we are going to go out of session on July 26 until the fall. We are going to be in a position of wanting to do things more quickly than we would ordinarily. I hope the majority will stick with what happened last year. I think it worked out well. I think our people felt that we were treated fairly, with some exceptions. There is going to be a tendency to push things more quickly this year and it will make things go even more slowly. In short, we have a lot of work to do. By following the Senate rules, I think we will get more done than not following the rules.”