Political Quotes

“I think the proposal the minority leader has made is eminently fair: This provision should be taken out, that there will not be an amendment offered on the floor, and whatever took place in conference he would be willing to live with. I am not going to go through the merits of the case. I think there is significant merit on the side of the minority leader. Basically, sure, this provision has been in the appropriations bill before, but it has had no impact on the upper basin States. Now it does, because the Corps of Engineers is at a point where they want to change the manual to determine how the river is going to operate. What this bill says is there can be no funds spent to change the manual. That is how the flow of the river is going to be impacted. We should leave this to bureaucrats. It should not be done, preventing money from going to change how the river is operated. This is something that, as indicated by my friend from Missouri, we can debate at a subsequent time. But the bill will not be brought up until this provision is out of the bill. We can, during the process of the bill, and before it gets to conference, decide what to do with it. This provision is unfair to the upper basin States.”