Political Quotes

“I would like to thank the body for this bill. This is an omnibus, and I am going to vote for it. There are some things that are disturbing about it--there is no doubt about that--not to mention the fact that Congress took 7 months to take care of this plan for the long term, which created uncertainty out there on the ground. There were 7 months when Congress sat on their hands, which left towns, hospitals, airports, and our citizenry in the lurch. But it does do some good things, and I think it does reflect the values of rural America, which I think is really important. I think it is a responsible budget for rural America in States like Montana. One of the things it does that I think is entirely appropriate is that it pushes the Education Department to reconsider the Upward Bound grant applications that were denied because of ridiculous--and I do mean ridiculous--format requirements, which will allow first-generation college kids to be able to go to college. What the Department of Education did with the Upward Bound Program is the worst of the bureaucracy that government can allow. This bill helps fix that. It gives the Department of Education a pair of glasses so they can apply a little common sense to their rules. It also does some good things for our national parks, it does some good things for our bases, and it does some good things to help our natural resources.…”