David Jolly: “My compliments to the chairman and to the ranking member for shepherding us thus far into this year. I often say the…”

“My compliments to the chairman and to the ranking member for shepherding us thus far into this year. I often say the first job of Congress is to govern, and that means keeping the government open. I think what we are doing today is honoring the responsibility we have, our article I responsibilities to keep the government open. We talk a lot about Congress having the power of the purse, but with the power also comes responsibility. So as we have hard conversations as a country and as a Congress about whether we fund certain programs, whether we fund certain entities, that is an appropriate conversation to have, and I think we have handled that appropriately thus far. You sometimes would not know that based on comments on the other side of the aisle because they continue to try to score political points and use political capital to suggest we are on the brink of a shutdown. The simple fact is we are not. Our colleagues on the other side of the aisle have acknowledged today that they intend to vote for what is a responsible continuing resolution that will ensure that our government remains funded. The irony of some of the criticisms that often come--and this comes from colleagues on our committee--is that, to finally reach a deal, to finally have responsible governance, it takes a willing partner on the other side of the aisle and it takes intellectual honesty on both sides of the aisle of every member of our committee.…”