Political Quotes

“I rise to speak on the consolidated and further continuing appropriations for fiscal year 2015. Every year we have a particular responsibility that is mandated by the Constitution, which is that the Congress of the United States shall pass an annual revenue bill to fund the government. The power of the purse is vested in the Congress. It is not vested in the executive branch. Our subcommittee on appropriations is a constitutionally mandated committee. The reason for that is, if one reads the Federalist Papers, it says that if the leader of a country controls the purse, they tend to be kings. But if the executive branch has to share power with the legislative branch controlling the purse, you have checks and balances. Tonight is the night we talk about what is in our annual bill. It had been the hope of myself and my vice chairman, Senator Shelby, that we could file something here called regular order, where the 12 subcommittees in Appropriations would have brought up one bill at a time. For a variety of reasons--mostly deep partisan politics--we were not able to bring up 12 individual bills, and I regret that. As a new party takes over, I hope we listen to the message of the voters--end gridlock, end deadlock, end the partisanship that is crippling our country. One way to correct that is to return to regular order. I look forward to continuing to work with both sides of the aisle to do that. Tonight we are where we are.…”