Political Quotes

“To my colleague from Missouri, thank you for your comments at the beginning where you were talking about process and the need for the Senate to change. This is a very different Senate from when I first came here and saw it function in a fashion where the social contract was: I won't object to other people's amendments because they won't object to mine. And then everybody was able to do their amendments. And also the other factor, just taking it back almost 50 years ago-- it was 1976 when I came here as an intern--cloture motions were not used on motions to proceed. They were not used on amendments. They were only used on final passage. And so now we have the challenge, when a spending bill comes to the floor, that you have a cloture on motion to proceed, a cloture on substituting the Senate bill onto the House vehicle, a cloture motion on final passage, each taking 2 days plus 30 hours, which means 3 weeks are completely wasted time. I appreciated your expression that there is bipartisan energy and interest in making this place work better. It is a message I love to hear. I hope we can find a bipartisan strategy that will enable both sides to have amendments and will enable us to quit wasting 3 weeks of time with no action on every spending bill that comes to the floor. Many colleagues have expressed a desire to see each and every one of the appropriations bills come to the floor. The last one we had on the floor took 6 weeks. Maybe together we can find a better path.…”