Political Quotes

On the recordJanuary 19, 2022
To my colleague from West Virginia, the challenge that we have today is that, in the course of Senate debate, it is never possible to get to a debate on the final question. And the proposal that the majority leader is putting forward is saying it is time to get to that final debate, and on that final debate every Senator can speak twice. I can tell you, leadership on both sides probably is nervous about the idea of 100 Senators speaking twice, at length, but the single innovation of the talking filibuster is to say that there will be a period of debate in which we will consider final passage with all four of the mechanisms that currently exist, three that were created at the foundation--and that is the break in debate and that is the two-speech rule and that is unanimous consent and the 60 votes that was created in 1975.
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Jeff Merkley
Democratic · Oregon

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