Political Quotes

“when we began this year's appropriations process, the task before us seemed almost impossible. It has been many, many years since we have completed the full appropriations process, and there were lots of challenges in a divided nation and a divided Congress. I just wanted to briefly, this evening, as we conclude this process in the Senate, take a moment and thank the chair and vice chair of the full Appropriations Committee, Senator Collins and Senator Murray. They and their staff made the impossible real. The bills that just passed through this body and headed now to the House will save lives and change them--will fund hundreds of billions of dollars of positive and valuable activity on behalf of the people of the United States. The subcommittee for which I am responsible in this Congress as the ranking member is the appropriations for the Department of Defense and for Intelligence Communities. The chair is Senator McConnell. I have truly enjoyed working with Senator McConnell on the very complex, challenging, and urgent issues related to our national defense, to our intelligence community, and to the future of our Nation. Senators, as we all know, don't do anything on their own, even on our best days. So I wanted to take a moment and thank all of the staff and the clerks who worked tirelessly, who stayed up for weeks on end, who dealt with ridiculous crises deadlines, who negotiated and renegotiated in good faith across the aisle to achieve this result.”