Political Quotes

“I will take the 5 minutes on our side. Madam President, I rise and join my colleagues in strong support of the nominations reform package before us today. This bipartisan bill and resolution which we will vote on a bit later will effectively change the way the Senate does business, and it is long past time to do just that. It is not often that this body voluntarily takes steps to curb its own power. But for the good of our democracy, the Senate must become more efficient. I thank my good friend and colleague, Senator Lamar Alexander, who has been a driving force behind this effort and has been steadfast in his resolve to make a change to this body. We have worked in a bipartisan way to resolve all the differences in a way that I would hope the Senate could work more often on more pieces of legislation. I also thank the chair and ranking members of the Homeland Security Committee, Senators Lieberman and Collins, for their input and expertise in drafting this piece of legislation and moving it quickly and productively through committee. Their impact on this process cannot be understated. I thank Senator Reid, the majority leader, and the Republican leader, Senator McConnell. Back in January, when we were negotiating the reforms to the body, they set up our working group to look into the problem of executive nominations, and they supported and were an active part of our effort.…”