Political Quotes

“Mr. President, I rise in support of the appropriations package currently under consideration, particularly the section dealing with Energy and Water Development appropriations. I know my good friend Senator Alexander, the chairman of our Appropriations Energy and Water Subcommittee, spoke last evening. I have served as chairman or ranking member of that committee for the past 5 years--we have alternated--and it has been a real pleasure and a great privilege for me to work with him. I also want to thank Senator Shelby and Vice Chairman Leahy. Perhaps people don't know this, but they have taken truly meaningful steps to return us to regular order. It has been a long time coming, and I truly hope it can be maintained. I have been on the Appropriations Committee for more than two decades, and I have been saddened to watch as we have descended into partisanship year after year and lessened our influence as a committee. Believe it or not, it has been 21 years since Congress passed all 12 appropriations bills by October 1. Since then, we have just staggered through a series of continuing resolutions and omnibuses. So I thank my colleagues on the Appropriations Committee for supporting this bill during markup, where we saw a vote of 30 to 1. I hope we will be able to maintain that spirit of bipartisanship on the floor, and I urge my colleagues to refrain from offering poison pill amendments, which would derail our progress. I believe this is a fair bill.…”