“I don't want this bill to pass. I'll bring up things from five years ago to change the subject. The other side is corrupt. They are lining their pockets. They put their friends first. They claim to protect the environment. That is not true. The other side is bad. They help foreign adversaries. The government needs to spend more money. We should spend more money to lower prices. This government project is important. The other side is corrupt. This bill might let them get away with it. I don't want that to happen. That would be bad for the country.”
“You say this bill will make America less dependent on other countries for mining. But you have a bad relationship with Canada. Canada sells us many minerals. If you really want America to be less dependent, you should be nice to Canada. But you are not. So I don't think you really care about America's dependence on other countries. I think this bill is about other things.”
“I want to talk about our bill. We should not depend on other countries for minerals. We agree on this. But we need to be careful about who gets the minerals from our public lands. We should not let foreign adversaries control our minerals. We have tried to add amendments to the bill to protect against this. But the other party keeps blocking our amendments. They don't give a good reason why. We use their own words in our amendments. But they still say no. That makes me think this bill is not really about competing with China.”
“This bill is not needed. We already have sand and gravel here. I think my colleagues are saying different things. I don't think this bill makes sense.”
“I don't like that Trump put many projects in FAST-41. He put in projects that are not important. He put in projects for his friends. That made it harder for important projects. The government can't do everything. We need to focus on important projects. We need to limit FAST-41.”
“This bill is not needed. It solves a problem that does not exist. Projects are already eligible for FAST-41. This bill would tie the hands of administrations. It would make them use FAST-41 for all mining projects. It doesn't matter if the projects are in our national interest. We should limit coverage to critical minerals projects. We should not give this status to companies owned by foreign adversaries. Republicans won't let us make these changes. That's bad. I don't like this bill.”
“I want the government to spend money on fishing technology. I don't like this bill. It will not help the whales. The government should spend more money to help the whales and fishermen. I think ropeless gear is good. The government should give money to fishermen for ropeless gear. I don't want this bill to pass. It will not help the whales. The government should do more to help whales and fishermen.”
“I don't want to talk about the actual bill. I brought up something from 10 years ago to change the subject. I hope that people will be distracted by talking about that instead.”
“I don't want this bill to pass. It stops our current plans. We already gave them 6 years. We spent $20 million on testing. They say they need more time. I don't agree. I think they are stalling. The Trump administration is not taking this seriously. They don't give us reports. They have 2 more years. They should use that time to do their job.”
“I don't like this bill. I brought up something from 4 years ago to change the subject. I hope that people will be distracted by talking about that instead.”
“I don't want this bill to pass. Some people agree with me. I want my colleagues to vote against this bill.”
“I don't like this bill. I want NOAA to do more to protect whales. This bill gives NOAA too much time. Ropeless fishing gear can help. This bill will hurt the fishing industry in the long run. It undoes whale protections. It goes against the Endangered Species Act. I want my colleagues to vote against this bill.”
“I want this bill to pass to build a monument for Medal of Honor winners. It should be near the Lincoln Memorial. I don't like that the Senate changed the bill. I want my colleagues to support this bill. The government should not build monuments without permission from Congress. I don't like that the government is building an arch for Trump. That is against the law. People have other problems like high prices. I want my colleagues to stop the government from breaking the law. This bill is good. It follows the law for building monuments.”
