Heidi Alexander: “I wonder if I might respond through the Chair to the majority leader. I have been consulting with the chairman of our…”

“I wonder if I might respond through the Chair to the majority leader. I have been consulting with the chairman of our committee, and on the Republican side, we understand what the majority leader is saying. What I hear him saying is that we have some important work we have to do this week. He wants to move to the Defense authorization bill before the end of the week. We have a conference report that includes a continuing resolution. He wants that acted on before the end of the week. Our hope is that we can deal with the Energy and Water bill today and tomorrow. I am beginning to ask our Republican Senators--and Senator Feinstein can speak for herself, but she is doing the same with Democratic members--I am asking them to get their proposed amendments to the floor this afternoon, if at all possible, so we can give the majority leader some idea of how many amendments there might be so he can evaluate how to proceed. So we appreciate the opportunity to do that. We believe that doing the appropriations bill is the basic work of the Senate. This is important both from a defense and a nondefense point of view. It had broad support in our committee, and so far, I have not found anyone on our side who isn't agreeable to moving quickly on it. I will know more at the end of the afternoon, and I will report to the majority leader about the Republican side.…”