Political Quotes

“we have something coming up that we are going to be talking about this week, and I am a little disturbed because I don't know exactly when it is going to be coming up, and I don't know how many objections there are going to be. I just know there are some people who want to delay, since it is a must-pass bill, the National Defense Authorization Act. We have passed it every year for, I think, 51 years. We have never failed to pass it. This is not going to be the first year that we fail to pass it. But I am hoping our Members will recognize how significant this is. First of all, as the ranking member on the Senate Armed Services Committee, I thank my colleague, the chairman of the committee, Senator Levin, for his leadership and for his cooperation, which we enjoyed during the committee markup of this bill. We got it through the committee in pretty fast order. People realized there are some things that had to be taken up on the floor--three very controversial issues. Fine. This is where it should be taken up. It will be taken up. There will be amendments I will strongly oppose and some I will support. But I have always considered the National Defense Authorization Act to be the most important piece of legislation Congress considers each year. This bill contains crucial authorizations that support our men and women in harm's way in Afghanistan and around the world.…”