Political Quotes

“I wish to thank the Senator from Minnesota for his words. The press and everybody else does not see the hundreds of hours of negotiations between Democrats and Republicans, Senators and Members of the House of Representatives working on this. The Senator from Minnesota is one of those who worked very hard to get us to the point where we are today. It has not been easy. Nobody got everything they wanted. I didn't get everything I wanted. Senator Lee didn't get everything he wanted. The Senator from Minnesota didn't get everything he wanted. But because of the work of people such as the Senator from Minnesota, we have a far better piece of legislation, and it is probably why it passed overwhelmingly in the other body, with Republicans and Democrats agreeing. In fact, that is why we have to reject these amendments and we have to cleanly pass the House-passed USA FREEDOM Act. Again, I cannot emphasize to Senators how much time has gone into this by key Republicans and key Democrats in the House and key Republicans and key Democrats in the Senate. We have worked behind the scenes for days, weeks, and months to get here. Cleanly passing the House-passed USA FREEDOM Act is the only way to avoid prolonging the uncertainty that the intelligence community now faces because of the lapse in the three authorities this past Sunday. I think both Senator Lee and I would agree the lapse in authorities was entirely avoidable.…”