Tom Udall: “thank you very much for the recognition. I say to Chairman Murkowski, thank you for those very kind words. It is, once…”

“thank you very much for the recognition. I say to Chairman Murkowski, thank you for those very kind words. It is, once again, always a pleasure to say we have worked with each other. I know there are issues sometimes we disagree on, but we listen to each other, we work through the issues, and we always come back to try to reach a financial result, and I think that is what the American people and what Alaskans and New Mexicans want us to do. As the ranking member of the Interior Department's Appropriations subcommittee, I thank my colleagues for being part of a remarkable process on the floor this last week, and I want to again thank my chairman, Senator Lisa Murkowski, and commend her for managing the bill in the way she has managed it and the leadership she has shown in this. I am particularly proud that we have moved this bill without the addition of contentious authorizing matters or poison pills, which is quite an accomplishment. What we really want is the appropriations process to work the way it has worked and let the authorizing process work. Senator Murkowski has been involved in both of those things-- authorizing and appropriations--as I have been. Unfortunately, there are still some poison pill riders in the House bill. By voting to send the Senate Interior bill to the conference without adding controversial items, we are, as a body, telling the House we will reject these poison pills once again.…”