Chuck Schumer: “I wish to make three points. First, it is the strong view of those of us on this side--certainly of me--that while this…”

“I wish to make three points. First, it is the strong view of those of us on this side--certainly of me--that while this amendment has a great deal of merit, the bill is more important than the amendment. I am willing to withdraw it not because I think any deal was broken; it was clearly not. We all had agreed there would be amendments and, in fact, it is our side's understanding there was an agreement that the Gregg amendment would be accepted and there would be a vote without a filibuster. That was explicit. If anything, if any deal was broken, it was done on the other side. Two, the amendment is an important amendment because there are, as I mentioned in my speeches, hundreds of thousands of people, if not millions, for whom it will be much harder to vote. This amendment would have made it easier for them to vote without increasing fraud by very much. We believe in the amendment, and we will try to deal with this issue in some other way, in some other form. Third, the bill is an excellent bill. The Senator from Connecticut, the Senator from Kentucky, the Senator from Missouri, and myself have spent a great deal of time on it. It will improve elections. It will do a lot to prevent the Floridas from happening and the 2000s from happening. I think it would be wrong to let the entire bill go down because of this worthy amendment.”