Political Quotes

“in the past, I have often been reluctant to support omnibus bills, which package multiple pieces of legislation into one. It is poor policy to legislate in this manner. This particular omnibus appropriations bill, combining eleven appropriations bills totaling $397.4 billion is the worst example of this that I have seen. Many of the individual bills were never brought before the relevant committees and we are barred from offering amendments on the floor. The final draft of more than 1,000 pages were first made available to the full Congress less than 12 hours before we are being asked to vote on it. Nobody knows the extent of the riders, earmarks and provisions that have been added to this bill. What we do know is in here includes some of the most egregious environmental riders imaginable: allowing nearly unlimited clear-cutting of our national forests; exempting the Administration's Tongass National Forest management plan from all judicial or administrative appeals; and, allowing preliminary work for drilling for oil in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge--despite the fact that it is currently illegal to drill there. Many of my constituents have expressed concern about the process that has taken place to get us to this point. I am not able to defend the process to them and, therefore, cannot support final passage of this bill. It is not fair to legislators or the people they represent to conduct Congress in this manner.”