Political Quotes

“Madam President, I rise as the vice chair of the Appropriations Committee to urge my colleagues to vote no on the motion to proceed to the Energy and Water appropriations bill. I wish to comment about the remarks of the Senator from Tennessee. First of all, I have such admiration for him and for his advocacy for Tennessee, the skilled legislator that he is. He has been an advocate for his State and for the United States of America. He is an outstanding chair of the Subcommittee on Energy and Water Development. I know he and my colleague, the ranking member, Senator Feinstein, have worked very well together. I don't dispute many of the things the Senator said in terms of what impact this would have on the economy. Certainly, if one is the Senator from Maryland, the Corps of Engineers is part of our economy, particularly because of the role it plays in helping to keep our waterways open and able for the Port of Baltimore to be viable and accept the new Panama Canal shipments. We could go through item after item. We need a bipartisan budget agreement. While the Senator says he wants to have his say, which I appreciate, we have been trying to get budget negotiations going since May. In the committee I voted to move this bill forward because I wanted to move the process forward. I was hoping that the leadership of both bodies would move to a new top line 302(b) allocation and lift the caps. We need leadership on both sides of the aisle and on both sides of the dome.…”