Political Quotes

“I, too, am hopeful that we are able to start an appropriations process and, ideally, to complete it by summer--well in advance of the September 30 government funding deadline--because we shouldn't be operating under deadline after deadline, where we go until the midnight hour. But as the gentleman knows, you can't start an appropriations process until you actually set what are known as the 302 numbers, the 302(a) and (b) numbers, so that we know what each appropriations bill can target in terms of its overall spending number, to have that caps limit. Ideally, it would be done through a budget with the April 15 deadline, but maybe the gentleman is going to be able to work with the committee to get a budget passed out of committee before the deadline and, if not, as the gentleman urges, a hopeful desire to get a caps deal. I would like to get a caps deal as well. I supported the last caps deal because it gave us 2 years of certainty. It was bipartisan. It was an agreement that, while we may disagree on top-line numbers--and we want more money for defense, and some on your side might want more for nondefense discretionary--we finally came to an agreement. That did give tremendous certainty to our men and women in uniform. So over 70 percent of this Federal Government was fully funded for the fiscal year. Clearly, we had a difference on border security, and that remaining area of our budget wasn't funded.…”