Don Nickles: “Today is October 2, the second day of the new fiscal year, and this Congress has not passed any appropriations bills. We…”

“Today is October 2, the second day of the new fiscal year, and this Congress has not passed any appropriations bills. We have passed a continuing resolution that takes us to next Friday, and I guess we will pass another one that takes us into the following Friday, October 11. This may be one of the poorest records we have ever had. We do only a few things in the Senate. We pass bills, changing some laws. We may occasionally do something very important such as a war authorization or resolution dealing with Iraq. Every once in a while we might create a new Cabinet-level department. We have the Department of Homeland Defense that has been before this body for the last 4 or 5 weeks, but we have not been able to draw it to a conclusion. Then we spend money and occasionally we change the tax laws. We spend a lot of money. That is something we do every year, but we have not gotten it done this year. We have not passed our appropriations bills. As a matter of fact, this year for the first time since 1974 we have not passed a budget.”