Political Quotes

“I just wanted to add my congratulatory remarks and thanks to Senator Shelby, the senior Senator from Alabama. For me, he will always be the chairman. He has certainly been my mentor, and I think the Senator from Missouri and others would say the same thing. He has been our mentor on appropriations--in my case, for 12 years--and I would have to say, to me, it is amazing how well he understands the process--of course, he has been at it for a while--how well he understands the process, how well he works it. The people he hires are so good. That is something we have to work with as chairmen of the subcommittees, is our staff administrators as well, and in working with Chairman Shelby, we are always going to get just absolutely the very, very best people. So it wasn't just his staff director for the full committee but the staff directors we had on the subcommittee. I think the Senator from Missouri would back me up on that. We were able to have such good people who really understood the process very well also, and that is incredibly important in appropriations because you have all these things that are authorized, and then we have to figure out what to fund and how to fund, and not only that but how to get those bills passed at the committee level and ultimately passed across the floor. Of course, everybody has a tremendous interest in what is in those appropriations bills.…”