Political Quotes

“Mr. President, I rise today to speak about the comprehensive immigration reform bill we will begin debating later today and for the rest of the month. I thank my colleagues for voting yes on the motion to proceed, which will let us debate this very important bill which is critical to the future of our security, our economy, and our society. This overwhelming vote--a majority of both parties--starts this bill off on the right foot. First, I will begin by saying that this has been the most open and transparent process we have seen in the past few years. Unlike most bills where only 1 or 2 Senators draft them, this bill was drafted by 10 of us here in the Senate. I thank each of the four Republicans and four Democrats in the Gang of 8--my seven colleagues in the gang--for their great work. The agricultural program in the bill was drafted by Senators Feinstein and Hatch. We then held a number of hearings where we debated, considered, voted on, and adopted scores of amendments during the Judiciary Committee markup under the able leadership of Chairman Leahy. Many of those amendments were bipartisan or were amendments offered solely by my colleagues on the other side of the aisle. These amendments dramatically improve the bill. Our bill is better and stronger today than it was when we introduced it. Before the bill was marked up, this bill had been vetted by the eight of us.…”