Political Quotes

“I just wish to underscore the point that it is urgent we take up this Omnibus appropriations bill; that we do this in order to have a budget for our country and that we don't threaten another government shutdown--we know how damaging that is to this country; and that we don't have another continuing resolution. Another continuing resolution provides uncertainty to our agencies. They can't do the critical work they need to do. It establishes last year's priorities rather than trying to establish the priorities for this year and represents a failure of the Congress. So I start by first thanking and congratulating my colleague from Maryland, Senator Mikulski, for her incredible leadership through this process, working with Senator Shelby and their counterparts in the House of Representatives. This is not easy. We have sharply different views in this Congress, and we have seen over and over again gridlock where we are unable to make decisions. I congratulate Senator Mikulski for bringing the negotiations of the omnibus to a successful conclusion. When we look at the work she did in the appropriations part of this Omnibus appropriations bill, I am very proud, and I think we all should be very proud and very supportive of the work she has done. As I pointed out earlier, if we don't pass an Omnibus appropriations bill, we are either going to have a government shutdown or we are going to resort to a short-term continuing resolution.…”