Haley Stevens: “I am one of the members of the Commerce Committee who voted to report this bill. I think I am one of the Members of the…”

“I am one of the members of the Commerce Committee who voted to report this bill. I think I am one of the Members of the Senate who does not take tobacco contributions. And I have very serious intentions to see to it that there is a bill passed. But I am also chairman of the Appropriations Committee, and we have 13 bills to pass. We have taken 4 weeks, now, on this bill, and I don't see any hope that it will be finished before the Fourth of July recess, the way things are going. Now, this country has to have a government and it has to have the appropriations bills come out of our committee. Members of the Senate seem to think that we are sort of the obnoxious people who bother them all the time until the time comes to decide what goes in those bills, and then I have a lot of friends. I am not going to have a lot of friends on what I want to do today, and I am sure there are people who are going to get involved, and unless the chairman of the Budget Committee wishes to make a point of order, I will make a point of order that if cloture does not come into effect--we have known all along, Mr. President, this bill violates the Budget Act. When I voted to bring it out of the Commerce Committee, I did so on the basis that we thought we could clean it up on the floor and eventually get it to conference, where it would become a bill that we would all be proud of. The trouble is, now it is just too complex and involves too much money.”