Political Quotes

“I come first and foremost tonight to thank the staff who worked so hard on this package--and I mean not just over the last few weeks but for literally years--to try to get to an agreement on something we could vote on. It is not a surprise to the Senate that it is December and people are voting on a lands package. My colleague from Colorado outlined it very well. When you have these bills that deal with water, that deal with public lands, that deal with giving Federal land back to communities so they can improve their communities, and yet designating some special places so they can be preserved for the public, yes, not all of your colleagues care about the details of that, and you are never going to get the leader, who is in control of the Senate, to give you floor time on that bill. So every December, we are here with a lands package to be considered, and it is a package that has a lot of input from a lot of people, negotiated, in this case, with the House and the Senate, with Democrats and Republicans--a four-corner negotiation. The missed opportunity tonight, as my colleague from Colorado said, is that we don't get to vote on it. My colleague from Utah is not being correct in that he was offered a chance to have that vote. He was offered a chance to have this bill brought up and to have his ideas voted on. He knew he was going to lose, and he knows he is going to lose in January, but he wants to insist tonight on prevailing.…”