Political Quotes

“Madam President, first let me thank the Senator from Arkansas and the Senator from Tennessee for their usual courtesies but also for organizing this colloquy on the Senate floor this evening. I am very pleased to join my colleagues as we talk about the goal of taking up the fiscal year 2013 appropriations bills in what we in the Senate call the regular order. What does that mean? As the Presiding Officer is well aware, that means we would bring up each of the individual bills, they would be open to full and fair debate, they would be amended, they would be voted on, and we would avoid having some colossal bill at the end of the year that combines all the appropriations bills. Those bills are often thousands of pages in length. A lot of times some of the provisions have not had the opportunity to be thoroughly vetted. They really are not very transparent. They contribute to the public's concern about the way we do business here in Washington. I too join in commending the majority leader, the Republican leader, the chairman of the Appropriations Committee, and the vice chairman of the Appropriations Committee for their commitment to try to work together in a bipartisan fashion so each and every one of the appropriations bills can be brought before the full Senate so that we can work our will on each of these bills. I suggest that it is important to the Senate as an institution that we achieve this goal.…”