Political Quotes

“Mr. President, I am very pleased to join Chair Murray as we begin debate on the first of what I hope will be a series of fiscal year 2024 appropriations packages considered on the Senate floor in the coming weeks. And I want to commend Chair Murray for her leadership, for her bipartisanship, for her relentlessness in getting us to where we are today. It did take a lot of work, and it has been a pleasure to be her partner. When Chair Murray and I took the helm of the Appropriations Committee at the beginning of this year, we set forth the goal of returning regular order to the appropriations process. Now, Chair Murray and I have served in the Senate long enough that we remember what regular order means. It means going through the committee process, reporting bills out after hearings and a markup, and bringing them to the Senate floor. But many of our colleagues on both sides of the aisle have never experienced regular order. That is how long it has been since we have done the process the right way. The system just works better when we adhere to regular order, with committee members having the opportunity to shape legislation, and the Senate as a whole having the chance to work its will. Regular order is not easy. In fact, it is a lot of work. Our committee members spent much of the winter and spring in hearing rooms, holding nearly 50 subcommittee hearings and briefings on the President's fiscal year 2024 budget requests.…”