Political Quotes

“I compliment and thank most sincerely my friend from West Virginia, the distinguished senior Democratic member of the Appropriations Committee, for his support during the committee markup in terms of the procedures for the consideration of the House- passed bill. We substituted a complete text in the committee markup for the House bill and proceeded to consider amendments to that text. We made some changes in that House bill, as is reflected by the total amount we are recommending be appropriated in the bill by the Senate. We bring the bill in below the level of funds requested by the President for this bill, and it is below the level approved by the House of Representatives. We hope Senators will consider their ideas for changes or improvements in the bill. We are not attempting to rush the Senate to completion of action on this bill, but we do want to move ahead with dispatch so we can get the funds that are provided in this bill to the agencies where they are needed, to the Department of Defense and the Department of State for depleted accounts. The challenges we face in Iraq and Afghanistan have been costly, as we all recognize, but we need to move forward to a successful conclusion of those operations so that troops can be returned home as soon as possible, so that stability can be restored in that and other regions of the world, and so that the economy of those countries can be free flowing once again.…”