Political Quotes

“I come to the floor as the vice chair of the Committee on Appropriations. That means I am the Democratic leader on appropriations for this session of Congress, and next to me is the distinguished Senator from Vermont, Mr. Leahy, who will have that responsibility next year. I come to the floor to say that, sadly, I am concerned we will not finish our job on appropriations the way we should finish it--to do an omnibus, to get the job done. Alas, the clock is slipping away. Now, one needs to note that the Committee on Appropriations, during the past year, under the leadership of Senator Cochran of Mississippi, worked constructively, worked in a well-paced, well-sequenced way, and we were poised to finish our work, with the Committee on Appropriations reporting all 12 bills for floor consideration 5 months ago. So we were ready 5 months ago to bring them up either as individual bills or in a series of minibuses. But instead of finishing Congress's work to fund the government, we are now contemplating putting the government on autopilot by something called a continuing resolution--a short-term continuing resolution that would only last for maybe 3 months. I am very frustrated about this. It did not have to be this way. As I said, we have worked very constructively on both sides of the aisle and have been cooperating to do our job.…”