Political Quotes

“Madam President, we began this process for the National Defense Authorization Act months ago. In July, in working closely with the ranking member and all of my colleagues on the committee, we passed a bipartisan National Defense Act which was focused on the fundamental rationale for our National Defense Act: the men and women of the Armed Forces; the equipment that they need; the new technology, which is absolutely necessary as we go forward; the family lives of these men and women and their development; along with the weapons that they will use. This has been the focal point. As a result, we produced a committee report with a bipartisan majority of 23 to 3. We continued this bipartisan approach as we came into the floor debate. We have already included in the substitute amendment, which will be offered, approximately 60 amendments, on a bipartisan basis, that cover a range of topics which have been agreed to by both sides. Again, everything we have done to this point has been on a bipartisan basis. Indeed, this unanimous consent that I have proposed is bipartisan. It incorporates amendments from both my Republican colleagues and my Democrat colleagues. It does so, as we must, in a way that accommodates as many as we can, but we cannot and have never been able to guarantee that every amendment offered could be incorporated into the bill. So what we have here is, in a way, a crossroads.…”