Patrick Leahy: “I agree with what the chairman has said. There is no reason we cannot move very quickly on this bill. In fact, I…”

“I agree with what the chairman has said. There is no reason we cannot move very quickly on this bill. In fact, I encourage anybody who has an amendment to come to the floor because if we reach any point where there is not an amendment pending, I am going to be very happy to go to third reading. It has been a long time since we acted on a Foreign Operations appropriations bill this early in the year. I thank both Chairman Cochran and Senator Byrd for that. Again, I say there is no reason we could not pass this bill by tonight or Monday afternoon at the latest. I repeat and emphasize that I want those watching, if they have an amendment, to come forward. Both Senator McConnell and I have worked very hard to accommodate amendments that both Republicans and Democrats had in this bill. Thanks to the budget allocations we had, we were able to accommodate most of the requests we received from Members and do it in a totally bipartisan way. Senator McConnell deserves a great deal of credit for producing a well-crafted bipartisan bill. I praise him for that. This may not help him back home--to get this kind of praise from a Democrat--but he deserves it. I don't agree with everything in the bill, but neither does Senator McConnell. That is why this process works. It is a bill that should receive broad support. We have tried to take into consideration the concerns of Republicans and Democrats.…”