Political Quotes

“I wish to thank the Senator from Maine, as well as Senator Toomey from Pennsylvania. I wish to express comments in regard to the motion to recommit we will be voting on around 3 o'clock. THUD is an important bill. It includes funding for things we consider absolute priorities, including, certainly, transportation, roads, bridges, funds for housing and for other purposes. So we very much want to fund the Transportation, Housing and Urban Development bill. The problem we have is we haven't agreed, as far as the appropriations bills, as to an overall total of how much we will spend. That is really the problem we are confronting with this legislation. Under the Budget Control Act, the total for all of the appropriations bills cannot exceed $967 billion. That is the law. That is the law. But the majority party is appropriating to $1.058 trillion. That is a problem. So as appropriators we want to go through prioritized spending, make sure we are funding the things that should be funded, and then for things that are lower priorities, not funding those so we can truly fund the priorities that are important to the American people. The problem is we are not going to be able to do that unless we get an agreement on the total funding level, and that agreement is exactly what the BCA--the Budget Control Act--provides, and it says specifically $967 billion. That is the law. That is the law. We have a $17 trillion debt.…”