Jon Kyl: “with respect to this bill, it is a very frustrating exercise, as Senator McCain said. One of the problems is we have a…”

“with respect to this bill, it is a very frustrating exercise, as Senator McCain said. One of the problems is we have a practice around here of combining bills in such a way that while you want to vote for part of it, you want to oppose the other part. It makes it very difficult to make your decision about whether you will vote yes or no. I wrote to the Appropriations Committee chairman when I first came to the Senate and asked to ``de-attach'' some of the bills. The bill before the Senate is the VA-HUD bill. Everybody wants to vote for the veterans programs, and because of the way those programs are structured this year, I support those programs. I want to be able to vote for those programs. As usual, when it is combined with the runaway spending in the HUD part of the bill, it makes it impossible to do so. It is exacerbated this year as a result of the tactics of the minority. We have not been able to bring bills to the floor, and we have not been able to send them to the President. The result is we have had to combine a bunch of bills at the end of the session, and we find we have to combine the energy and water appropriations bill with the VA-HUD appropriations bill. The problem, as bad as it is in the first instance, is exacerbated. I voted for the energy and water appropriations bill. While there are programs in that bill that I don't support overall, it was an important and good bill.”