Heidi Alexander: “in the next few minutes, Senator Feinstein and I will submit for the Senate's consideration the first appropriations…”

“in the next few minutes, Senator Feinstein and I will submit for the Senate's consideration the first appropriations bill of the year. This will be the Energy and Water appropriations bill. It will be the earliest that any appropriations bill has been submitted since the Budget Act was passed in 1974. This is a good sign for the Senate. It means we are serious about our most basic constitutional responsibilities, which is the oversight of the spending of money, the setting of priorities, and doing it in a way that allows every Senator to participate. I am privileged to be able to work with Senator Feinstein, who is able to come to a result after we have examined an important piece of legislation. She has a background as a manager, as a mayor, as a chairman of important committees, and I am very privileged to have the chance to work with her, whether we are in the majority or the minority. Before I talk about the bill specifically, since this is the first bill, I wish to say a few words about the money we are spending. This year the Budget Control Act, which the Senate adopted in 2015--which was the law passed by the Senate by a vote of 64 to 35, October 30 of last year. This year the Budget Control Act sets the amount of money we are to spend at $1.07 trillion. Our bill, the Energy and Water bill, will be $37.5 billion of that approximately $1 trillion. However, the entire Federal budget is a lot more than $1 trillion. In fact, it is four times as much.…”