Political Quotes

“Lack of adherence to the terms of the budget deal also explains why we are unable to mark up the other two bills in this package: Labor, HHS, and Education and State-Foreign Operations. Just like the Defense and Energy and Water bills, these bills were crafted in a bipartisan way. Yet some of my Democratic colleagues threatened to amend these bills with abortion-related poison pills. Poison pills, as we all know--just like restrictions on transfer authority--are expressly--expressly--prohibited by the terms of the budget deal that we all agreed to just a few weeks ago. Again, both parties agreed to those terms. Regardless, I am interested in moving the appropriations process forward, and I believe Senator Leahy is too. I am interested in doing so consistent with the budget agreement we agreed to. That is why the chairman of the Labor-HHS and Senate Foreign Operations Subcommittees, Senator Blunt and Senator Graham, have released the versions of these bills that the Appropriations Committee intended to consider last week. Both bills were crafted with bipartisan input, and both are free of poison pills. We are proud of the work that went into those bills and want to be transparent about how we intend to proceed, but before we vote on cloture, I want to remind my colleagues of our shared success last year and our common interest in moving the process forward this year.…”