Political Quotes

“I remember--and I am sure the Presiding Officer does too--an early morning in March when we completed our budget deliberations. That was a couple of months ago. I remember the outcry about the Senate not following regular order in passing a budget. On that March morning, we followed regular order. We passed a budget. We took up lots of amendments. We spent hours on debate. We voted on many amendments, and the Senate worked its will. Of course, the House has also worked its will. It passed a budget that is different from the Senate budget. The next step in regular order is for the House and Senate to meet in what is called a conference to work out the differences between the House and the Senate so we can then have a budget for the country. That is how the regular process works. I know for the last couple of years we have had budgets. We have had budgets because of grand bargains that have been agreed to on debt extensions and things such as that, but there is now a cry to follow regular order. That is what we should do: Follow regular order. So the next step is to go into a conference. I must tell my colleagues, I don't quite understand why the Republican leader is objecting to going to conference. He is trying to say, We will go to conference if the Senate agrees with the House. No, we don't go to conference because we agree with one body; we go to conference to work out our differences.…”