Political Quotes

“Mr. President, last fall, Republicans promised that if we were elected to the majority in the Senate, we would get the Senate working again. A big part of that is getting the appropriations process working again. When the Senate is functioning properly, 12 separate appropriations bills are considered individually in the Appropriations Committee and then brought to the Senate floor for debate and amendment. This process is designed to allow Senators to carefully examine programs and consider the best and most responsible way to distribute funding. But the appropriations process has not worked that way for a while. Too often, over the past few years, the majority of the year's appropriations bills have been thrown together in one catchall funding bill, greatly reducing Senators' ability to take a hard look at spending and to ensure that funds are being allocated responsibly. Republicans are determined to change that. We started the appropriations process by passing a balanced budget resolution for the first time in over 10 years. This week, we continue the process with the National Defense Authorization Act, which authorizes funding for our Nation's defense and our men and women in uniform. This authorization bill is the first step in the appropriations process for defense funding under what we call regular order. This legislation accomplishes a number of important things. It authorizes funding for our military at the President's requested level of $612 billion.…”