Political Quotes

“Mr. President, we are officially on day No. 2 of the second tranche of an appropriations package. We have before us the Interior Subcommittee's appropriations bill, the Financial Services, the T-HUD--Transportation, Housing and Urban Development--and Agriculture. So it is a good combination. It is a good package. It is a strong package. It is a series of appropriations bills that moved through the full Appropriations Committee several months back. Most of these bills advanced either unanimously, as the Interior Appropriations Subcommittee's bill did, or with a strong bipartisan show of support out of committee. For those who have followed the appropriations process over the years, you know it is somewhat unprecedented to be able to advance these spending bills through the full committee process, much less to do so in a manner that surely shows the bipartisan approach this committee has taken in this fiscal year. I acknowledge and recognize the work of Chairman Shelby and his vice chairman, Senator Leahy from Vermont, for the truly collaborative process they have encouraged all of us to work toward. There was an agreement, an understanding, that our appropriations process had not been the model of good governance, of legislating, that we would have liked it to have been, that we would expect it to be, and that our colleagues--much less the American public--would expect it to be.…”