Patrick Leahy: “one of the reasons I am so happy to have him back is that the Senator from Utah and I, even though we bring different…”

“one of the reasons I am so happy to have him back is that the Senator from Utah and I, even though we bring different political philosophies to so many issues, know that on so many issues before the Judiciary Committee we have a responsibility to try to bring both sides of the aisle together and to span a wide philosophical gap among the 100 Senators. When we work together, as we have on many issues, we find that those issues pass the Senate overwhelmingly. That is why, I might say, as we start this new action in this new millennium, how much better it is, instead of having a cloture vote, that we are letting the Senate process work--something both he and I have seen for a couple of decades here work the way it should. Last year, the Democrats entered into a unanimous consent agreement to limit our rights to offer only three nonrelevant amendments and to file relevant amendments by November 5. We entered into this agreement to work in a bipartisan manner to improve the bill. We made bipartisan progress.”