We need our Republican colleagues to join us in giving education the high priority that it deserves at the national level,

There was no imminent threat. This was made up in Texas, announced in January to the Republican leadership that war was going to take place and was going to be good politically. This whole thing was a fraud.

This bill has one motivation -- payback by the Bush administration and the Republican leadership of the Congress to the powerful special interest of the National Rifle Association.

Let us not seek the Republican answer or the Democratic answer, but the right answer. Let us not seek to fix the blame for the past. Let us accept our own responsibility for the future.

We are giving assurance to the American families that help is on its way.

We can only wonder what they don't want us to know.