Heidi Alexander: “in a few minutes we will be voting on whether to end debate on the Energy and Water Development Appropriations bill.…”

“in a few minutes we will be voting on whether to end debate on the Energy and Water Development Appropriations bill. Most of what we have to say about it at this point is very good news. This is the first appropriations bill of the year. It is the earliest date an appropriations bill has been acted on in the Senate since 1974. If it goes through in the regular order, it will be the first Energy and Water Development Appropriations bill that has done so since 2009. More than 80 Senators have contributed policy suggestions and amendments to the bill on both sides of the aisle. In addition to that, we have dealt with 17 amendments on the floor. Now we are ready to end debate and move in our process toward a final solution on the bill. I believe this bill was put on the floor because Senator Feinstein and I have a good history of working together, and the expectation was that we would find a way to do that. Let me say the problem--and I will leave time for Senator Feinstein or the Democratic leader or perhaps Senator Cotton or others who may want to say something. An issue has arisen over an amendment offered by Senator Cotton. He did that after the administration made an announcement over the weekend that it would be purchasing heavy water from Iran. Heavy water by itself is not much. It is just water. It is in drums. It doesn't hurt anybody. It is not dangerous.…”