Default Prevention Act of 2013-- Motion to Proceed--
Floor Speech
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Mr. PRYOR. Madam President, I had not intended to speak right now. I know the leaders are working on trying to get the process clear so we can move this legislation forward. But I would like to mention a few of my colleagues who really helped in this process.
We had a number of Democrats and Republicans who met together and talked to try to come to a resolution on a package we wanted to present to the leaders. In fact, the structure of what the two leaders have agreed on is very similar to what we had proposed to them.
I see some of my colleagues here today who were instrumental. I see the Senator from Alaska, Ms. Murkowski, and I know Senator Ayotte is here, as well as Senator Flake, who happens to be in the Chamber right now, and Senator Kirk, Senator Johanns, Senator McCain, and, of course, Senator Collins. Senator Collins really led and spearheaded the effort, and she deserves a lot of credit for getting us together and helping to move the ball down the field.
I hadn't planned on controlling the floor right now or even talking about this very much, but since we have the opportunity--I know on our side of the aisle Senators MANCHIN, KLOBUCHAR, KING, DONNELLY, HEITKAMP, and SHAHEEN all played a critical role. Again, this had not been planned by anyone; it just looks as though we have a little bit of time.
If it is agreeable, I would like to yield to one of my colleagues to say a word about the agreement we reached or that we were working on to try to present to the leaders and just really say thank you to Senator Collins and thank you for all 14 of us. It turns out we had seven Republicans, six Democrats, and one Independent. Basically what we tried to do is come up with a sensible framework the leaders could use to get us to where we are today. Again, they didn't accept every single thing we wanted, but the framework was good, and certainly it was great to see everyone work together.
Before I turn it over to the Senator from Arizona, I wish to thank him because he was great and very instrumental in moving this ball down the court.
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