Political Quotes

“Reserving the right to object. My colleagues, I believe here today, are promoting legislation that they claim will spur Congress to pass appropriations bills in the event of a government shutdown--in other words, to avoid it. I think they have a good idea, but would that do the job? I doubt it, but this debate will go on, and it should because I agree with the frustration that so many of you have, including the Presiding Officer here. We are having to part with it. My colleague from Vermont, Senator Leahy, and I, for 2 straight years, with cooperation--bipartisanship--were able basically to pass these appropriations bills, most of them, for the first time in years. This has slowed down this year, absolutely. I know it is a big Presidential race and everybody running this year and that throws it into it. But we would like to pass these bills before October 1, just as you would. But I don't believe this legislation would do what you think it would do, and I think it deserves further inquiry and scrutiny. I believe it would exacerbate, in some ways, the problem that we are trying to resolve here. We are right now close to closing out, hopefully, all of our appropriations bills. We call it an omnibus. I agree with their frustration. We should, as a body, both parties, every Member of the Senate, should have had the priority, No. 1, to do this before October 1 each year, as we used to do it.…”