Political Quotes

“before we vote this afternoon, I want to thank my colleagues in the Senate, provide a status update on the appropriations processes before us, and urge the Senate to stay the course. First, I thank Leaders McConnell and Schumer for bringing this package to the floor and facilitating an open amendment process. I also thank the bill managers--particularly Senator Alexander--for their work in crafting strong bipartisan bills and keeping the process on track. In addition, I express my appreciation to Senator Leahy, the vice chairman of the Appropriations Committee. Vice Chairman Leahy is a man of his word, and that has been essential to the committee's ability to move bills. Finally, I thank all of my colleagues for their cooperation and their input during floor consideration of this package. At the outset of this debate, I challenged all Senators to follow through on their calls for a return to regular order. To that end, several amendments received up-or-down votes on the floor, and dozens more from both sides were included in the managers' package. We also rejected controversial authorizing provisions for the good of the process. As we are getting ready to vote on final passage, I hope my colleagues agree that we are headed in the right direction. I recognize that this package must still be reconciled with the House version before we can get it to the President's desk, but I am optimistic that we can do that in short order.…”