Patty Murray: “I want an up-or-down vote on this amendment. I want the Senate to be held accountable for their vote on this. I want to…”

“I want an up-or-down vote on this amendment. I want the Senate to be held accountable for their vote on this. I want to be assured that we actually have an opportunity to move to do this amendment without rule XVI applying. I went to the appropriations subcommittee hearing the night before last. We could not offer any amendments in committee yesterday, as the Senator from Illinois knows; he was there. We were unable to offer this amendment. It was going to be second degreed. The chairman of the committee pleaded and begged that no amendments be offered, that we do it on the floor. Now we get to the floor. I am going to be second degreed. We will never have a chance for an up-or-down vote and rule XVI may or may not apply. The Senate will never be on record. I want our colleagues to vote. I want us on record. I want the American public to know who wants to make sure that we continue the promise we made, the commitment we made 1 year ago, to reduce class sizes in first, second and third grades.”