Political Quotes

“today we are returning to session in order to conclude our work for the first session of the 109th Congress. I want to welcome everybody back after a couple of weeks where people have been with constituents and people have been working very hard to bring to conclusion many of the issues that were left unfinished a couple of weeks ago. Real progress has been made over the course of the last 2 weeks. Over the course of this past weekend, a lot of work has been done. As I mentioned prior to Thanksgiving, we will be working today and tomorrow on a number of issues. However, the first rollcall vote will be on Wednesday morning. Many of our colleagues have asked about the schedule for this week, this weekend, as well as next week. As things unfold and as my discussions with the Democratic leader continue, we will be forthcoming to let people know exactly what we expect. We would like to finish up our work as quickly as possible prior to the Christmas holiday. However, everyone does need to be prepared to stay as long as necessary to finish the work that is before us. Today, we expect to reach an agreement on several motions to instruct the conferees on the deficit reduction bill that is at the desk. We would have those motions debated tomorrow, on Tuesday, and on Wednesday, with votes to occur or begin to occur Wednesday morning. We also expect to debate the Bahrain Free Trade Agreement during tomorrow's session under a short time agreement.…”