Haley Stevens: “I hoped that was not the case. In any event, the Senator from California did say it was a one-sided review, with the…”

“I hoped that was not the case. In any event, the Senator from California did say it was a one-sided review, with the Republicans reviewing this. The staff reads out our bills--joint staff, House and Senate, Republican and Democrat. I don't want to embarrass anybody here tonight. I am sure every Senator and Congressman will talk to their staff about this mistake. I assure the Senate that there were members in the minority from the Senate and from the House and members from the majority from the Senate and House that read this bill through twice. It wasn't just the majority; it was the minority and the majority staff. This is a mistake. It is clearly a mistake. It is an unfortunate mistake. I have talked to the chairman of the House committee. He was appalled, as I was, when we found it was in there. To my knowledge, no Member of the House and Senate was asked about this staff request. A representation was made that the front office had cleared it. Actually, we have to have a signoff from the minority as well as the majority staff for their section of these bills. We have that signoff. If the Senator from California wishes, I will tell her the members of the staff on the Democratic side who reviewed this section and signed off on it. I don't want the Record to show it was a partisan review. We do not have partisan reviews of our bills. As a matter of fact, there is no committee that works on a bipartisan basis more than the Appropriations Committee.”