Political Quotes

“I indicated during the last week that I did not want to have to fill the tree. It is unfortunate that an objection was raised. We were able to move forward, as I indicated, in the last so-called minibus with three appropriations bills made into one. So we are now in a situation where we have no way to move forward unless we have an agreement on the underlying bill, which is the Energy and Water bill. I have some knowledge of that bill. I was on the Appropriations Committee from the day I came to the Senate, and I worked on that subcommittee for many years--several decades--and I was chairman of that subcommittee quite a few times. I worked with Senator Domenici when we would go back and forth as to who was the Chair, and we worked extremely well together. We were able to get the bill done quickly and satisfy the needs of the Members of this body. If I can have the efforts of my friends, Senator Feinstein and Senator Alexander, to move forward on this in a way that we can have some view of how we can end this legislation fairly quickly, with the ability to have amendments, I would have no problem because, as I have indicated, we have a lot of things to do before we leave here. We cannot come back here in December with a lot of unfinished business. I talked to my caucus today about the Defense authorization bill. I think we have to finish that bill before we leave here for Thanksgiving.…”