Political Quotes

“I would be remiss, while we are on the Senate floor, as I was thinking about Senator Harkin, Senator Mikulski, both senior Members--she is the chairperson of the Senate Appropriations Committee where I have had the privilege to serve a number of years. We all go back to our House days. That is where I first met Senator Harkin. He was a couple of years younger then, and so was I. Senator Mikulski and I were on the same committees over there. Senator Harkin came to the Senate a couple of years before we did. We have been involved together on the issues and against each other and so forth, but we stayed friends. And I think Senator Harkin is absolutely right. Senator Mikulski is very on point on regular order; that what we are trying to do on the Appropriations Committee--and this is a big start here--is to go back to the way we used to do things--regular order. We would have our spirited debates--and they were spirited--in the subcommittees of Appropriations, the full committee would come to the floor, and we would debate it, vote on it, and go to a conference with the House, work it out, come back, and live with it. We haven't done that in a long time. What we are trying to do now is get back on that track, and this is a big first step. Having said that, I would like to take just a few minutes to speak on Chairman Harkin's amendment. I believe there are three critical points my colleagues should understand about this amendment.…”