Patrick Leahy: “I wonder if you might consider this: have a vote on your amendment, and have a vote on my amendment separately, and let…”

“I wonder if you might consider this: have a vote on your amendment, and have a vote on my amendment separately, and let the Senate work its will. I will say this very frankly. I think the reason nobody moved to strike my amendment out of the appropriations bill was that--I heard this from both sides--they said: OK, we understand this is not a bad amendment, and we don't want to be on record as saying we are against it. I think the obvious embarrassment by some, not all, but the obvious embarrassment by some who had to vote against it on the other side was they wished they had not. They wished they could have kept it in. So I would ask my dear friend from Virginia--and he is truly my dear friend--what do you think of that idea? Let's vote on both of them?”