Political Quotes

“I will be closing shortly, but I do want to comment briefly on the immigration bill today. I want to make a few remarks on where we are and then where we will be going. Mr. President, we began debate on the comprehensive immigration reform before the Easter recess. The majority was at that time set to strengthen the underlying bill by having debate and amendment on the underlying bill to be able to toughen the border security aspect, but at the 11th hour, the other side said: No, we are not going to allow that open debate and amendment process. So what had come to the floor under the leadership of Chairman Specter was a bipartisan bill that did need continued work, and that bipartisan effort was scuttled for a period of time. The Democratic leader and I agreed to a process whereby we could bring that bill back to the floor, which was the beginning of last week, where we, in a bipartisan way, would have that opportunity to offer amendments and attempt to improve or adjust or modify that bill. That is the process we are in the middle of right now. I am pleased where we are today, but as I said 2 weeks ago or 3 weeks ago, we do need to complete this bill before the Memorial Day recess. Resuming consideration in the early part of last week, we have made real progress. And I do not know the exact number of amendments, but we have had amendments every day come to the floor for those up-or-down votes from both the Republican and the Democratic side of the aisle.…”