Whatever action the Senate takes on ESA reform should reflect the national, bipartisan outcry for strong property rights protections. Quite simply, when the government takes your property, the least it can do is pay for it.

He's worked very hard to try to overcome that ... (but) as a minority member of the Senate, of course, accomplishments are thin. There's not a policy record there. There's not successes to point to.

The difference between the two for me, fundamentally, is that the Senate and the governor want to do it the way it's always been done, and the House wants to see if there's a better way to do things, if there's a way to change the structure of how we provide services.

This is one of the worst things the Senate has ever done. On the back of a cocktail napkin they have tossed aside protections of individual liberty that have been in existence for centuries.

My preference is that we eliminate the Senate.

It's good to have a new face [in the Senate] as opposed to someone who's already been around.