Political Quotes

“earlier we were discussing the District of Columbia appropriations bill. It is a bill that I have taken an interest in as the ranking Democrat on the subcommittee. One of the smaller spending bills, it has now become one of the largest. You might wonder what has happened. It turns out that the District of Columbia appropriations bill has become a vehicle in the closing hours of this session for a lot of legislative attempts at spending. In fact, the largest nondefense budget to be considered by the Congress each year is for the Departments of Labor, Health and Human Services, Education, and related agencies. It is the largest bill. It passed the Senate in one form a few weeks ago. But the bill in its original form never has passed the House of Representatives. In fact, they went the entire session debating about whether or not there would be enough money to fund critical programs for education and health. The House could not muster a majority to pass that bill during its regular session. It had to wait for a conference committee which involved the District of Columbia to finally bring it to the floor just a few hours ago where it passed with a very close vote. It now is headed to the President's desk for his consideration after we vote on Tuesday. It is my guess that the rollcall will be by and large a partisan rollcall, but that the bill will pass the Senate and head down to the White House. It is also fairly certain that bill will be vetoed by the President.”