Political Quotes

“I thank my good friend, the committee ranking member, for her leadership. Madam Speaker, this is a bill that should have been supported from the beginning. In fact--no offense to the Budget Committee--but if the Appropriations Committee had been given these numbers from the beginning, there wouldn't have been any sequester or shutdown or furloughs. We could have gotten this done because this is a package of chosen priorities and funding compromises. That is what we do in the Appropriations Committee. So that is why we ought to support it. In fact, we ought to have such a strong vote that we send a signal to all those ankle-biters and naysayers who say we can't get anything done. We are going to get this done. We are going to fund the agencies. On the Interior Subcommittee, we met all of our obligations. We repaid the fire costs that had been incurred last year. We provided sequester relief for every agency funded in this bill. Now there won't be any agency furloughs in 2014. Every agency is going to be able to carry out their important functions without the sword of sequestration hanging over them. It provides $5.8 billion more than that initial House allocation, which Chairman Rogers, himself, pointed out was inadequate. These numbers, while they are not as much as I wish they were, they are reasonable. It is a compromise.…”