Political Quotes

“here in the Senate we work closely with so many people, but no one do we work more closely with than the court reporters. They are right here in our face every time we talk, taking down a verbatim transcript of what we say, and they work extremely hard. We went through a period of time when we were working through all these nominations, and they went for days without going home. They had a cot in their office, and they never missed a beat. I always watch very closely the court reporters because my brother-- who is 22 months younger than I am--was a court reporter. He retired from doing that, but I watched him work so hard. Court reporting is extremely difficult. It is very intense. In court we rarely have court reporters who take what we call a daily. They will have a couple of court reporters during a trial and they will transcribe their notes sometime later. But here in the Senate they transcribe their notes now--immediately. The reason I mention that today is one of our reporters is going to retire. Joel Breitner has been here for three decades in the Senate. Prior to coming here, he was a court reporter. He has this designation now--as this young woman in front of me is reporting what I say--as an Official Reporter for the United States Senate. Joel began working here in this body in 1987, after having been a court reporter already for 23 years. During his time in the reporters office, he has witnessed both innovation and a lot of history.…”