Political Quotes

“Mr. President, let me express my thanks in return to Chairman Daines for being such a fantastic guide and a fantastic partner on this subcommittee budget. I am excited to bring this to my colleagues this morning. I will note that he took over midstream from Senator Lankford, who began this process. I will also note that we didn't really get moving so quickly to a conference committee until Senator Daines took over. I give him great credit for adding so much and being such a great partner in all of this. I really don't need to go through all of the important initiatives Senator Daines already did; maybe I will spend a minute doing so. I would note that we made progress on some issues that had been stalled in the Legislative Appropriations Subcommittee for a long time--such as intern pay or the requirement to file campaign finance reports online-- I think because we were able to do this budget on its own, with a real process, with a real committee debate, and with a real conference committee. When these budgets get tied up in giant omnibus negotiations, it tends to be that only the top four or five issues in the omnibus get the attention from the folks in the room. These budgets are very important, but maybe because they are a little bit smaller than the budget for HHS or the Department of Defense, they go untended to.…”