Political Quotes

“Mr. President, I want to make a few observations about the continuing resolution and the appropriations process this year. First, I want to commend Chairman Inouye for his leadership and efforts to accommodate the views and input of all senators in crafting the omnibus appropriations bill. He went a long way to meet the demands of the minority leader and other senators to include a $29 billion cut from the budget level requested by the President. Indeed, I was deeply disappointed that the proposed omnibus would have eliminated the Leveraging Educational Assistance Program, LEAP. For more than a decade, I worked with states, educators, and others to reauthorize and fund this program, which uses Federal resources to leverage additional state aid to help low income students attend college. As much as I was dissatisfied by this outcome, I was prepared to vote for this bill because it is far superior to the inefficiencies and consequences of a continuing resolution. I am disappointed that such a significant compromise was blocked by the other side of the aisle. Instead, we are being forced to adopt a short-term continuing resolution, CR, through March 4, 2011. With few exceptions, the CR provides no direction from Congress on how funds can be used, while at the same time failing to make critical adjustments and investments for certain programs and agencies.…”