Political Quotes

“Mr. Speaker, I thank the ranking member, Congresswoman Lowey from New York, for the phenomenal job that she has done this year, and commend Chairman Frelinghuysen for trying to herd cattle on a very vast range. Mr. Speaker, here we are again, mere hours away from a needless shutdown, a cliff created by the Republican majority. Already we are 3 months into the 2018 fiscal year, and Congress is no closer to finalizing one of our chief constitutional responsibilities, and that is funding the departments of our Nation to do their jobs. For a nation at war, the Department of Defense, the largest Department in this bill, can't let contracts because of this adolescent dallying by Congress. I rise with frustration today, as the Appropriations Committee's subcommittees did their job over the last year. They toiled away for months, chipping away in each subcommittee bill, but that proved to be a fruitless effort since we had no agreed upon budget caps within which to make those decisions, because the Republican majority produced no budget. There is simply no good reason why we are here again kicking decisions down the road, and for 2 weeks. Let me remind my colleagues, we were over 7 months late last fiscal year before we fully funded our government. This fits and starts, fits and starts surely is not what the American people deserve.…”