Political Quotes

“I rise today to begin the debate on the issue of partial-birth abortion. This is an issue that, obviously, has garnered a lot of attention over the past couple of years, both in the House and Senate and across the country. While the bill is not formally before us tonight, the bill will come up tomorrow. I have been informed that it will come up approximately at noon tomorrow, when we can actually begin debate on the bill itself. So the debate on partial-birth abortion will begin tomorrow in the U.S. Senate. For those who have been following this issue, the questions that I have been asked, and Members are being asked on both sides of this issue, is not whether this bill will pass. I believe this bill will pass. The question is whether we are going to have sufficient votes to override what appears to be an almost certain Presidential veto. In the House a few weeks ago, the House passed the legislation with 295 votes, more than the 290 needed to override the President's veto. We only need 67 votes in the U.S. Senate to be able to override the President's veto. At this point, I think by all accounts, we are not there yet. We are still several votes short of the 67 votes committed publicly to supporting this legislation on final passage and supporting it in the face of a Presidential veto. I will say we are at least four or five votes short at this time, and we are narrowing down the time here in which decisions have to be made.”