Rob Portman: “reserving the right to object, I don't know what the Senator from New Mexico is talking about, to be honest. He is my…”

“reserving the right to object, I don't know what the Senator from New Mexico is talking about, to be honest. He is my friend and colleague. I will say that I am from Ohio, not Oregon. We just talked about the importance of this bill to Ohio. It is also important to Oregon and to the Senator's State of New Mexico and to other States around this country. There is no paired bill with this. I am talking about a bill that has been around here for 4\1/2\ months. It has been cleared. There are no substantive concerns. My understanding is that the Senator from New Mexico is talking about a bill that is still in committee. It has not even come out of committee. It is not a House bill. In other words, it hasn't been passed in the House. It is not going to go to the President's desk for his signature. I would be shocked if my colleagues on the other side of the aisle say they are going to block this commonsense, bipartisan bill that Senator Sherrod Brown and I have worked steadfastly on with both sides of the Capitol to get this done tonight on an urgent basis because we have to get it done. Ours has been out here for 4\1/2\ months; we didn't hear about yours until 45 minutes ago--45 minutes versus 4\1/2\ months. If the Senator from New Mexico wants to block this for other reasons, he ought to say so. But if he is blocking it because there is a pairing--there is no pairing. Maybe he is trying to pair it with something in committee. But let's get this done.…”