Political Quotes

“Mr. President, it is clear from the debate on the Defense bill and the vote that was held a bit ago that this is a partisan time for our Nation. I come to the floor this afternoon to talk about an issue that is not at all partisan; that is, the question of doing public business in public. When you say those words--``doing public business in public''--people are almost flabbergasted when they are told that, regrettably, much of the important decisionmaking in the Senate is not done with that level of public accountability and public transparency. That is because of what are known as secret holds where one Senator--just one--in a completely anonymous fashion, can block a bill or a nomination from even coming to light, from even being heard in the Senate. For years now, there has been a bipartisan effort to change this procedure, to require that all Senators be held accountable. Senator Grassley and I have been involved in this effort in a bipartisan way for over a dozen years--for a dozen years--trying every way we could. We established the principle that the Senate would do public business in public, and if a Senator wanted to object to a bill or a nomination, they would have to be publicly accountable. For years now, the defenders of secrecy, the defenders of a system without transparency and accountability look for one dodge or another.…”