Political Quotes

“at this point I will speak, if I may, in the nature of a colloquy with the chairman and with the Senator from Delaware, but first let me thank the Senator from Delaware for his very kind remarks. Senator Carper, as everybody knows in the Senate, is really a bellwether of bipartisanship, and he constantly seeks cooperation. So I appreciate very much his efforts to bring us together. The chairman has been working very hard on these bills for many years, and the bill on the floor now is the product of considerable work in his committee--Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee--considerable work in the Intelligence Committee, and considerable work in the Commerce Committee primarily, although we in the Judiciary Committee have had some input as well. So while there has been no specific hearing on the assembled bill, because it covers so many committees, it has to be brought together at some point, and its components have had extensive committee work. So we have all put a lot of effort into this, and we have actually all come a very long way, I believe. Our window is very short, and I hope and expect we can use the hours ahead of us literally to work to close this gap. But I believe the distance we have come, and particularly that last bit of distance, when the chairman changed S. 3414 to go from a traditional mandatory regulatory system to the new voluntary standards, really has moved us in enormous ways.…”