Political Quotes

“Madam President, to respond to my distinguished colleague and friend from Virginia, in the first place it is important for us to remember, yes, we are a bicameral Congress. Yes, in order to pass legislation you have to have something pass in the House and pass in the Senate and then be signed into law by the President. But the fact is there are a number of ways to accomplish this. Yes, it is certainly true that one way we reconcile competing versions of legislation passed in the House and Senate respectively is through conference committee. It is not the only way, it is one way. It is also true that under Article I, Section 5, Clause 2 of the Constitution, each body of Congress has the power to write its own rules for its own operation. The way the rules of the Senate are written it is such that in our current posture, in order to get to a conference committee it requires unanimous consent. That means all of us have to agree it is a good idea to take that particular route. But we don't have to take that route. There are other ways that, under the rules of the Senate, would allow us to address differences in the House-passed budget and Senate-passed budget without going to conference. We could, for example, take up the House-passed budget right now. We could debate that and discuss that. That is a way of addressing this that does not require us to go to conference.…”