Joseph T. Burns: “We are off to kind of a rocky start. Not only do we not have a budget and the rules that we must abide by within a…”

“We are off to kind of a rocky start. Not only do we not have a budget and the rules that we must abide by within a budget in order to proceed to appropriations and to make any sense out of the appropriations process, but we also do not have our appropriations process as being sort of supplanted, that we may have to take another tack in order to pass them and keep the Nation's Government in business. This week, we have witnessed that we are not really ready to pass any legislation in this body. We, as 100 Senators, are concentrating on votes and issues that lean to doing the business of a political party rather than doing the people's business, which we were sent here to do. This is the people's forum. All people in this country expect us to get our work done. We have issues that are held up, yes, in policy, but the business of financing this Government in a direction that faces the challenges that we do at this time is also being held up.”