Thad Cochran: “my advice to all Senators, including my good friend from Florida, is to try to work with the Appropriations Committee…”

“my advice to all Senators, including my good friend from Florida, is to try to work with the Appropriations Committee leadership. Senator Stevens is chairing a meeting marking up individual appropriations bills this afternoon. The committee will be considering the request for supplemental appropriations submitted by the President that we just talked about. At that time, when we are considering the supplemental for disaster assistance, would be the time, in my view, when we could consider other hurricane damage that the Senator is discussing now. In my mind that would be a more appropriate vehicle for the Senators who are talking about midwestern agricultural needs as well. I hope this annual appropriations bill for the Department of Homeland Security won't get held up with a debate over disaster assistance because of drought or other problems in other parts of the country. It is hard to say yes, let's have some funds included in the bill for those purposes, and then say no to those in our part of the country where we do know the needs are real. They are just as expensive, maybe much more so in reality, than the Midwestern problems. I am hopeful that we can protect the integrity of the appropriations process and the integrity of the Homeland Security appropriations bill.”