Political Quotes

“as my good friend from Alaska, the chairman of the Rules Committee, has stated, before the Senate this afternoon is Senate Resolution 73. It is the 2-year budget authorization for Senate committees for the years 1995 and 1996. It continues the policy of biennial budgets established in the Rules Committee in 1989. We have 2- year budgets and we cannot get the Federal Government on 2-year budgets, which I think would save money. It would not balance the budget but it certainly would help us, give us some time for oversight. But in the Rules Committee, and the committee chairmen have accepted it, where the money would lapse at the end of the first year, it would carry over into the second year of the biennium. The committees were not anxious then to spend the money, come back to us prove they needed it, and then prove they need more. So at the end of this year we had a considerable surplus as a result of the 2-year budget. That was returned. I think the proof is in the pudding and I am very pleased the 2-year budget authorization has worked so well. The Rules Committee's job in markup was to find the minimum figure-- and I underscore minimum figure--that will permit the committees to function effectively and efficiently. The committee conducted a review on a committee-by-committee basis. It was not all thrown in a pot and stirred up and figures pulled out.…”