Heidi Alexander: “I am on the Senate floor, but I should have had the opportunity today to be at an Appropriations Committee meeting. We…”

“I am on the Senate floor, but I should have had the opportunity today to be at an Appropriations Committee meeting. We were scheduled this morning to mark up--that means to consider and vote on--the labor, health and human services bill for the next fiscal year. The labor, health and human services bill is one of the most important pieces of legislation we have. It is the bill that spells out the priorities of the American people as worked out by their elected officials on everything from National Institutes of Health to Pell Grants for college students. Passing an appropriations bill is an appropriate and important check on executive spending. It is one of our most important constitutional responsibilities. It is one we haven't been exercising very well over the last 4 years. Even though the Appropriations Committee has approved most of the bills to go to the floor, the majority leader has not brought most of the bills to the floor for our consideration. In 2 of the last 4 years we considered zero appropriations bills on the floor. One of those years we considered one and another year we considered five. I wasn't at the committee meeting this morning because our markup was indefinitely postponed. I asked why, and I couldn't get a clear answer, but apparently it was because some Senators don't want to vote on difficult or tough amendments. I have repeated a certain line a lot in the past couple of years.…”