Rob Portman: “we not only can and should; we must. We must pass this legislation. I was very disappointed to see that my colleagues on…”

“we not only can and should; we must. We must pass this legislation. I was very disappointed to see that my colleagues on the other side of the aisle chose to vote no on even the ability to move forward with debating this legislation tonight. To my colleague, the Democratic leader, who said this is a highly partisan bill, that is just not the case. Let's put the partisanship aside. Let's do what is best for the American people. I will tell you that over the past several days, through a bipartisan process, we sat down, Democrat and Republican, in four different task forces, and we put together the elements of this legislation. As a result, the bill before you tonight, the one we are talking about, reflects Republican priorities and Democratic priorities. I am going to take the time to walk through it and to talk about some of those so people understand what is in this legislation. I was pleased to see the Democratic leader say at the end that he believes we can figure this out over the next several hours. He said 24 hours. I hope it is not 24 hours. We need to move and move quickly. We see what the markets are doing globally. We know what the markets are going to do here. We have seen what the futures are. More importantly, we see the impact in our States, among our citizens. The Democratic leader says more money needs to be put against hospitals and States and workers.…”