Chris Coons: “I come to the floor this afternoon because this week the Senate has a chance to take another crucial step away from the…”

“I come to the floor this afternoon because this week the Senate has a chance to take another crucial step away from the political cliffs and manufactured crises of previous years and to get back to the regular order--to get back to the considered, measured, orderly process on this floor that for so long was characteristic of this body, in the past considered the greatest deliberative body on Earth, but in recent years it has ground to a halt. It is critical that we return to regular order and that we return to the steady consideration of appropriations bills in a way that will move not just the Senate and this Congress but this country forward. I thank the chair and ranking member of the Appropriations Committee, Senators Mikulski and Shelby, for their leadership and their steadfast determination to work in a bipartisan manner and bring us back to regular order. We are considering today a collection--or what is called today a ``minibus'' instead of an omnibus--of three appropriations bills: Agriculture, Rural Development, and Food and Drug Administration; Commerce, Justice, and Science; and Transportation and Housing and Urban Development--an unbelievable scope across these three appropriations bills that could in combination make a real and significant difference for our communities, our States, and our country.…”