Political Quotes

“I still suggest on bills that we are going to do, if they go through the committee process, the committee markup process, we have a better idea of the intensity from each of the members on the committee. We have a better idea of alternate solutions or sometimes just alternate wording: a comma, a word here or there. Change sometimes makes a tremendous difference. That is not possible to do from the floor of the Senate. The publicity isn't very good from the committee. Those issues that we passed nearly unanimously every time have not risen to much of a level of publicity, but they have gotten the job done. That is what I am suggesting we ought to do on bills this year. I am worried about the way this came up so early and, without that process, what we are facing for the rest of the year. Will we just short-circuit committees? I also believe committees were very important, and I have enjoyed working on this committee. It used to be the most contentious, and now it is the most productive. I want to keep it that way. The way to keep it that way is to make sure things go through committee so committee members are not left out.”