Barbara Boxer: “I have decided to vote for the omnibus appropriations bill because it contains many things which are very beneficial to…”

“I have decided to vote for the omnibus appropriations bill because it contains many things which are very beneficial to the people and the economy of my state of California, and it includes two of my top priorities--afterschool programs and the Salton Sea Restoration Act. I want to make it clear, however, that the process that brought us this bill is severely flawed. While the Senate Appropriations Committee, on which I sit, did its work and reported each appropriations bill to the full Senate, the leaders of this Congress failed to do the appropriations work. This omnibus bill is not the right way to legislate. I also want to say that I strongly object to the environmental riders in the bill, including legislation that will double the timber cut in several national forests in California. I realize that some of the riders were dropped from the final legislation and others were negotiated to have less impact, but the presence of any riders that harm our environment is unacceptable to me.”