Bill Lee: “I appreciate the longstanding friendship I have with my friend and distinguished colleague, the Senator from Illinois. I…”

“I appreciate the longstanding friendship I have with my friend and distinguished colleague, the Senator from Illinois. I know he has no objection to passing this bill in this fashion. In fact, it was after a long negotiation process culminating with an agreement between me and the Senator from Illinois that we made modifications to this legislation--modifications I didn't want to make but I made in order to get this passed. It was represented to me in good faith by the Senator from Illinois that it would pass the hotline; it could pass by unanimous consent, if it happened. Had it all gone according to how we had every reason to believe and how the Senator from Illinois had every reason to believe at the time, this would have been passed by now. What we didn't anticipate was that the lead cosponsor of this legislation who had herself been a part of these negotiations, been a part of the conversation about how we were going to get it passed, and been a part of the conversations about the very modification that might be necessary in order to get it passed by unanimous consent, would then suddenly decide to object.…”