Political Quotes

“last week, an overwhelming 91 Senators voted to begin debate on the bipartisan appropriations package--a package of bills that each passed the Appropriations Committee unanimously. But then a few Senators decided to object to a run-of-the- mill procedural request, threatening to derail our months of hard work, halt our return to regular order, and prevent the full Senate from having a chance to debate and offer amendments and vote on our appropriations bills. The senior Senator from Maine and I have been working hard to make sure we have a robust amendment process with amendments from Democrats and Republicans. And so many Senators have been working with us in good faith so we can debate their ideas for how to make these bills stronger. That is how this process should work. But in the wake of continued obstructions from a very small handful of Senators, we can't get started discussing those amendments without this vote on a motion to waive rule XVI. So I hope all of our colleagues who voted to move forward last week will join us for cloture and for this motion so we can avoid an omnibus and keep our bipartisan process on track, because that is really what this vote is. It is a vote to keep us on track, and that should be a really simple choice.…”