Tom Cole: “Mr. Speaker, I won't take the 18 minutes that I have. I don't think I need it. The facts here are pretty clear. At the…”

“Mr. Speaker, I won't take the 18 minutes that I have. I don't think I need it. The facts here are pretty clear. At the beginning of this process, I was asked to produce a clean bill for a limited period of time by my colleagues on the other side. They asked for that so that we could continue negotiations on a package of three bills. Those are going quite well now and are happening. All of a sudden, we have extraneous demands for things unrelated to the day-to-day operation of the government. With all due respect, I think additional negotiations on those topics could happen. I think the majority leader in the United States Senate actually signaled they could happen but not attached to this particular bill. This is what my friends on the other side asked for. They asked for a clean bill with no partisan riders and no tricks. Give it to us for a short period.”