Political Quotes

“Mr. President, I rise as the vice chair of the Appropriations Committee to express my appreciation to the majority leader of the Senate, Senator McConnell, and Senator Cochran, the chair of the Appropriations Committee, for moving the process forward. We have on the floor today the Energy and Water Committee bill. This is the first bill of the Appropriations Committee to come to the floor. It signals that we are ready to do regular order. I so appreciate the leaderships' commitment to do that, so we don't end up with a big omnibus bill at the end. Every bill comes, they can be amended, and everyone can have their day and their say. It is an excellent kickoff to what I hope will be the ability to move all 12 bills and some crucial, urgent supplementals. I also compliment Senators Alexander and Senator Feinstein for the excellent job they have done on this particular subcommittee. They have followed the bipartisan agreement. They have a bill that is free of poison pill riders. When you look at what they have done in terms of energy and water, it is an excellent bill from the standpoint of national security and economic development, whether it is the funding for the Army Corps of Engineers that is so important to those of us who have ports, to science in terms of our fields of energy. We win Nobel prizes, but we need to win the markets. It has an excellent approach in terms of tech transfer. Maryland benefits from this bill.…”