Heidi Alexander: “in about 15 minutes, the Senate will vote on final passage of the Energy and Water appropriations bill that the Senator…”

“in about 15 minutes, the Senate will vote on final passage of the Energy and Water appropriations bill that the Senator from California, Mrs. Feinstein, and I have been working on with Members of the Senate for the last few weeks. The Senate began consideration of this bill on Wednesday, April 20. According to the Congressional Research Service, this is the earliest date the Senate has begun debating an appropriations bill in the last 40 years. When we finish today, this will be the earliest the Senate has passed an appropriations bill in the last 40 years. Eighty Senators either submitted requests or offered amendments to the bill. Senator Feinstein and I have worked hard to accommodate most of those. The last time this bill, the Energy and Water appropriations bill, was considered by the Senate and passed in regular order was in the year 2009. By ``regular order,'' I mean it came to the floor, it had an open amendment process, all 100 Senators had a chance to participate in it, instead of just the 30 on the Appropriations Committee, and it was eventually voted on and approved. Yesterday, the Senate voted to end debate on the substitute amendment by a vote of 97 to 2. As I mentioned, today we are ready for final passage in about 15 minutes. By the end of this process, we will have considered 21 amendments and adopted 14. I appreciate my colleagues supporting the regular appropriations process.…”