Political Quotes

“Mr. Speaker, fiscal year 1998 begins tomorrow. The Congress has not presented all 13 regular appropriations bills to the President. Because these bills will not be enacted by tomorrow night, it is necessary now to proceed with a short term continuing resolution, and I emphasize that, short-term continuing resolution so that the Government can continue to operate while we finish our work. Currently we have concluded a conference on five bills and six more are in conference and we are making good progress, but we need a little bit more time. While I wish I were here today speaking on the last of the 13 conference reports that we will need to approve, unfortunately, I am not. But I am also not here to despair that the process is broken and that we are facing a stalemate or Government shutdown. Even though we are here with a continuing resolution, this resolution will be signed and we will get our appropriations work completed in the near future.”