Political Quotes

“I thank the gentleman for yielding. I want to thank the ranking member for her leadership and always trying to be responsible. I thank Mr. Visclosky and the Appropriations Committee for their work. Madam Speaker, I rise in support of this agreement between the two parties and between the administration and the Congress. I am hopeful that it will pass overwhelmingly. I have a little statement here, which I will submit. But because we want to get this business done, briefly I want to say to the Appropriations Committee: Congratulations for doing your work. I know there was controversy and everybody didn't support it, but we passed 10 of the appropriations bills almost 2 months ago, clearly sufficient time to have reached agreement and passed the appropriation bills, not a CR. A CR is a recognition of failure, failure to get our work done in a timely fashion, and I regret that. I take some credit for passing 10 bills last year in June and 10 bills this year in July. I pushed the Appropriations Committee pretty hard. The staff worked hard; Members worked hard; and we got our bills done. The Senate has not marked up a single bill in committee. There is no bill out of committee, and there are no bills on the floor, which means the Senate has essentially abandoned the appropriations process. Madam Speaker, that is not the way that the Congress of the United States ought to work. I am for this. It was tough to get to.…”