David Thomas: “I wish to talk a little about the congressional session we are in now for our second week. We have lots of things to do.…”

“I wish to talk a little about the congressional session we are in now for our second week. We have lots of things to do. Certainly, the American people are anxious that we move on to do those things. Yet we find ourselves in sort of a stall on the floor, which is disappointing. We know we have actions to take. We know we have to be organized. Yet we are held up in being organized. That is discouraging to many of us. The fact is that 2 years ago, when the Senate was 50-50, we had an agreement as to how to work and how to fund the committees. Now we find, particularly on the other side, that we can't come to agreement. I urge the leadership to move forward so we can get on to do the things we are here to do. We have a lot of things to do, many of which are held over from the last session. One of the most pressing is ready to be acted upon whenever we are ready to act on it, and that is 11 of the 13 appropriations which we did not even get to last year.”