Political Quotes

“Before I go to my first speaker in order to respond to some of my friend's points. I want to begin by talking about the amendment process just very quickly. It is worth noting 72 amendments are made in order here; 47 of those were actually Democratic amendments. Many of the amendments that my friend referred to that had been submitted to the Rules Committee, at least a third of them, were knocked out because they were simply out of order. But my friend is correct: it is not an open rule. I do remind him that the first people to eliminate open rules on appropriations bills were not Republicans. It was actually the Democratic majority in 2009 that ended the practice and, for 2 years, allowed almost no amendments on any appropriations bills, and most appropriations bills never came to the floor. So I think my friends bear a considerable amount of responsibility for where we find ourselves today. I do want to talk a little bit, too, briefly, about my friend's comments about the AUMF, because he has been a good friend and a close ally in an area that we have a similar concern. I agree with my friend. We need to debate this, and we need to have an AUMF that is more in tune with the times and, frankly, reintroduces congressional power and congressional oversight. I have worked with my friend in the past on that. I am going to continue to work with him on it going forward.…”