Political Quotes

“It certainly would have been the case that had we started voting earlier today, I think we could have gotten through the list. I was surprised by what our friend from Vermont said a few minutes ago, suggesting that Republicans have held up all this. My understanding is that last night we were close to a unanimous consent on a proposal to bring some 16 amendments to the floor for a vote. We were getting closer and closer to that. It was at that point when the senior Senator from Louisiana came to the floor and demanded that all of this cease, unless or until such time as 27 amendments that she was pushing for not only would be brought to the floor for a vote but be passed by unanimous consent. It was a rather unusual request, from what I can tell. I am still a new Senator. I have only been here 2\1/2\ years, but it seems to me to be something that doesn't happen very often. But it certainly was a different sequence of events than what was described by our friend from Vermont a few minutes ago. Look, we wanted amendments. Some of us have been working on this bill for many months, and we have prepared amendments. We have had those amendments. We have made them available to members of the public for a long time so they can be reviewed. We just want to debate them, discuss them, vote on them, and move on.…”