Political Quotes

“I hope everyone has had a good Thanksgiving recess--enjoyable, relaxing. We have a busy few days ahead of us as we have our final week for the 109th Congress, and there are a number of priorities we need to address. We have the Gates nomination. The hearing on that nomination began this morning. It is our intent to have the Senate address and complete action on this nomination no later than this Friday. We have a continuing resolution. I was just talking to the Democratic leader about that. The continuing resolution does expire at midnight on Friday. Absent action on any other appropriations, this continuing resolution will extend funding for Government operations into 2007, and it will not contain earmarks or policy initiatives. Also on the agenda are various tax, trade, and health extenders. Bipartisan Senate work has been spearheaded by Senator Grassley and Senator Baucus. They assembled a package of necessary tax, trade, and health policy extensions. That is being filed as we speak. Fourth, yesterday Senate conferees were named to the United States- India civil nuclear cooperation deal. The burden now falls on the Senate and House conferees to conclude final work on this very important piece of legislation. It would implement a nuclear power technology sharing agreement with the United States and India. This morning I talked with Prime Minister Singh of India, who underscored the importance of this legislation.”