Political Quotes

“what I want to do is first respond to the Senator from Kentucky and a couple of points that he made, and then talk in general about the problem I think we are confronting here in this debate on unfunded mandates. I would agree with the Senator from Kentucky that amendments have been offered to improve the bill. I would agree that the amendments he referred to have in fact improved the bill, and have in fact gotten bipartisan support, and the legislative process in that respect is working. I also remind the Senator from Kentucky that we are in the first step of the process. We are considering the bill here for the first time. The House is yet to bring it up. They are going to be considering amendments under an open rule which will allow improvement to this bill. We will then in all likelihood pass different versions of this bill. It will then go to conference where different ideas that have been percolated through the legislative process get resolved, and hopefully even a better product will come out with the best ideas of the House and Senate. I do not think anyone would say that any bill that passes the House or the Senate is perfect. There are always things that are going to come up that could have been improved. We would like to see debate. I would like to see debate on germane amendments that deal with the issue of unfunded mandates. I would like to see improvements to the bill.”