Political Quotes

“right now, we are in the middle of what I have referred to several times as what I consider to be the most significant bill of the year, the National Defense Authorization Act-- one that you can almost be sure will pass. This will be the 60th consecutive year it has passed. That is a pretty good indication it is going to pass. That comes with problems, however. People know that a bill is going to pass, so you get a lot of pieces of legislation that had not been able to get passed, and it may be a whole year, and it becomes a part of this bill. It is more than just the Defense authorization bill, but it is the most significant one. Before we even came to the floor, we did something that we have been working on now--at least I know personally--for 4 years, and that is to put ourselves in a position where just in case we find ourselves where we can't get amendments--all it takes is one person to object, and there will be no amendments if this happens. We decided to go ahead and put this bill together and do it in such a way that the Members are actually drafting the bill. We have 700 Member items. You might remember that back in January, we started talking about this, saying: If you want to have an amendment in the Defense authorization bill, even though it is not going to become effective until a year from December, you better get down there and do it because now is the time you can get that done.…”