Political Quotes

“I wish to speak briefly in support of this resolution. First of all, I wish to thank my distinguished colleague, the senior Senator from Tennessee, for his leadership in introducing this legislation. The Senator from Tennessee has shown great leadership on this issue. With his mastery of the Senate rules, his familiarity with the procedures of the Senate, the Senate's history, and his love for the Senate as an institution, the sponsor of this measure understands and appreciates the importance of maintaining order in the Senate. It is to this issue I would like to speak briefly. When the Senate made this change in November of 2013, what happened was all of a sudden we had a split--a split that occurred between on the one hand the wording of the rule itself that governs cloture, on the other hand the precedent by which the Senate purports to be governed. So separate and apart from what the history tells us--from how often the Senate either has or hasn't used cloture on the Executive Calendar--there is this separate distinction that has now arisen. The cloture rule says it takes three-fifths--a vote of three-fifths of the Senators--to bring end to debate on a particular matter. The rule itself makes no distinction between the Executive Calendar and the legislative calendar.…”