Political Quotes

“Mr. Speaker, I thank the chairman for his gracious comments. I appreciate the time, and I appreciate the fulsome praise. I do want to talk just a little bit about process because I think, if you are not on the Appropriations Committee, you probably haven't been able to follow a lot of this. And, frankly, this process can be made better; there is no doubt about it. I suspect, processwise, my friend from Massachusetts and I are not very far apart on where we think it ought to end up. But I do want the full body to understand what we went through to get to this point. First, it is important to remember that all 12 subcommittees of the Appropriations Committee produced legislation last year. There were full hearings and fulsome debate, and each subcommittee reported out their product. Then the full committee dealt with each subcommittee's report and presentation, and in doing so, all amendments were open from both parties. Eventually, of course, all those 12 were put into a single bill. There were hundreds of amendments from both sides of the aisle that were made in order in that process. That bill was brought to the House floor in mid-September, and it was passed. So, the House effectively did all of its work. It did the hearings; it did the markups; it reported it to the floor; and it moved it across the floor. We have been waiting for about 180 days for the Senate to respond. I could point some fingers. I am not going to.…”