Political Quotes

“Mr. Speaker, I rise in opposition to this so-called security minibus. The Republican majority has rushed through the fiscal year 2018 appropriations process, passing 12 bills without benefit of a budget resolution. Now they have failed to secure the votes on the floor for that Republican-only omnibus package, so they have decided to move forward with what is before us today--four appropriations bills stitched together that would bust the Budget Control Act defense cap and, if enacted, result in a $72 billion sequester against all defense accounts. The entire fiscal year '18 appropriations process has been a Republican exercise in sham accounting and wishful thinking: ignore current law, jack up defense spending, and impose huge, unnecessary, and detrimental cuts on domestic appropriations. When future students learn about congressional appropriations, this episode should be exhibit A of what not to do. The four bills before us today are also full of objectionable and unreasonable policy riders, including the ridiculous inclusion in the rule of $1.6 billion to be spent on 74 miles of border wall. Nobody would know it from the President's hysterical rhetoric, but there are already 700 miles of fence along the border--vehicular fencing and pedestrian fencing. I know about it because most of that fence was built when I was chairman of the Homeland Security Appropriations Subcommittee.…”