Political Quotes

“Mr. President, I am pleased to join my colleague from Georgia, Senator Isakson, in supporting the biennial budgeting amendment. This is legislation we have been working on--this will be the third session of Congress now--and it is a response to what I think we would all agree is a broken budget process here in Washington. Since 1980, we have only had two budget processes that have been finished on time, according to established process. In that timeframe, since 1980 when, as Senator Isakson pointed out, every President has endorsed biennial budgeting, Congress has resorted to more than 150 short-term funding bills or continuing resolutions. That is no way to govern. While we have made progress in recent years to reduce our deficits, we need reform of our budget process. Senator Isakson pointed out very eloquently how this proposal would work. In New Hampshire, where I served three terms as Governor, I had a legislature of members of the other party and yet we were able to pass biennial budgets 3 years, on time, that were balanced. It worked in New Hampshire. It works in 19 other States. It can work here. This is an opportunity for us to begin to reform our budget process. It won't fix everything, but it will go a long way in addressing our opportunity to provide oversight in the second year of the budget process. I hope our colleagues will join us, and that we will again, as we did in 2013, have a majority to support biennial budgeting in this body. I yield the floor.…”