Political Quotes

“I object, and I would like to explain the reason why. I concur with the comments Senator Lott has made about the importance of moving this legislation forward. I have conferred with the ranking member of the committee, the Senator from Texas, who makes a strong case that the legislation has been carefully crafted, and it is important to move it forward. I totally concur with her on that. I also have no problem with the way in which the unanimous consent agreement has been constructed in terms of moving forward as soon as it is possible to do so. I have no objection to any of that. I do simply want to, as the minority leader said, preserve the option of dealing with the subject of the recent floods and droughts on this appropriation bill. The reason is as follows: The ranking member of the committee, the chairman of the Appropriations Committee, and the ranking member of the Energy and Water Subcommittee are all meeting today with other people, including the Director of the OMB, the Senator from Texas, and others, to try to figure out the best way to deal with the new issue of the fire and flood and drought damages that have occurred in this country since the supplemental appropriations bill was put together. My personal view is that the supplemental would probably be a preferable place to include the disaster relief to replenish the funds for the forest fires to the BIA and the Forest Service. There are those, however, who disagree.”