Political Quotes

“Mr. President, my cochair, Senator Hutchison, is on the floor, and I know she wishes to speak. It occurs to me we are back on the Federal aviation bill. We have been on this bill for several years. There is an interesting sort of dilemma which has developed. If one listens to the conversation on the floor and around in the hallways, everything has to do with slots--how many flights in and out of National Airport, what are we going to do about the west coast, Seattle, and all the rest of them. Actually, that is a very small part of the overall bill, reflecting on the overall health and progress of the Federal Aviation Administration, compared to things such as NextGen, the new air traffic control system entirely, and a variety of other things which are already in the bill which the Senate passed last year 93 to nothing. So I am losing my patience a little bit with slots. Kay Bailey Hutchison and I agree on most things in our work, and we have an amendment. Other people seem to be going back and forth--they are amenable, then they are not amenable--and we are running out of time. I think the leader, with that in mind, is going to ask for cloture on this to sort of force everybody's hand. What I am really suggesting is that those who are working on slots try to come to an agreement during the course of the rest of this day because I think we are talking only about that, and perhaps a little bit of tomorrow morning.…”