Cord Byrd: “I express the hope our leadership on both sides of the aisle can help to press hard to get the remaining appropriations…”

“I express the hope our leadership on both sides of the aisle can help to press hard to get the remaining appropriations bills completed and sent to the President singly and not as an omnibus bill. The Appropriations Committee in the Senate today reported out the D.C. appropriations bill and the Labor-HHS appropriations bill. This makes 12 of the 13 appropriations bills that the Appropriations Committee in the Senate has reported out. The House, I understand, is working on the Defense appropriations bill and will soon act on it and will shortly send over the conference report on the Department of the Interior. We will have to have another CR. That will be coming along probably today. In any event, our committee and our chairmen and ranking members on all the subcommittees have worked diligently and hard, and I hope the leadership will help us to bring pressure on both sides of the Capitol to move these appropriations conferences. The staffs have done the preliminary work, a good bit of it in many instances. It is absolutely necessary we show the American people that this Congress can do its work, is doing its work, but it is going to take some effort on the part of all of us, I say to the distinguished minority leader and the majority leader, to bring these remaining conference reports to the floor. We shouldn't have to have another continuing resolution after this next one. We ought to complete these appropriations bills in the remaining days of this month.”