Haley Stevens: “Mr. President, beginning this year, during consideration of the fiscal year 2004 Omnibus appropriations bill, I stood on…”

“Mr. President, beginning this year, during consideration of the fiscal year 2004 Omnibus appropriations bill, I stood on the floor and spoke about how our economic situation, our vital national security concerns, required us to take greater effort in prioritizing our Federal spending and we could no longer afford business as usual. Little has changed since January. Here we are again, nearly 2 full months into fiscal year 2005 and we have before us another appropriations monstrosity. Let me remind my colleagues that because of our inability to get much done under the regular order, this is the third year in a row we have had to pass a mammoth consolidated appropriations bill. In fact, we have been forced to consider huge Omnibus appropriations bills for 6 of the last 8 fiscal years. This is a remarkable package. This is a remarkable thing. I would argue that not one Member of the Senate or our loyal staffs is physically capable, even if they wanted to, to read this many-thousand-page document. This system cannot continue.”