Getting Our Work Done

Floor Speech

Mr. McCONNELL. Mr. President, my good friend the majority leader used to say frequently when he was in the minority that the price of being in the majority in the Senate is you have to take votes in order to advance bills in a smooth process.

My understanding is that we were within one amendment of reaching an agreement several days ago. I think we are not that far away from an agreement that would allow us to expedite consideration of the bill, move it along, and be fair to the minority. I think everyone knows it is not uncommon in the Senate--in fact, it is routine--for there to be amendments offered by both sides that are not directly related to the bill. So there is nothing extraordinary about this.

Let me repeat, we would be more than happy to enter into a short time agreement on the amendments we were discussing with the majority and try to wrap up this bill at the earliest possible time, certainly earlier than we would wrap it up if we let all of this time run until after midnight tonight.

Source