Political Quotes

“Mr. President, it is no secret that the Senate has a long to-do list this month. The National Defense Authorization bill, the farm bill, and all 12 appropriations bills should be signed into law before the end of this month, but with 9 working days left on the schedule, we all know that is likely not to happen. But these deadlines are not a surprise. We have known about them for a long, long time, and many of them, like government funding, come up every year as well as the NDAA, which we have done for 60-plus years in a row. Despite that, we find ourselves staring down the barrel at the end of the fiscal year without a clear direction from Leader Schumer on how he intends to see that the government is funded. It is astounding that the monumental task of funding the government has lingered in purgatory on the Senate calendar as the Democratic leader chooses to spend this Chamber's time, limited time, on political show votes on a number of partisan nominees. I would also like to remind this Chamber of what the Democratic leader has wasted the Senate's time voting on this year. We have voted on things like protecting access to contraception--not in dispute; IVF, in vitro fertilization--not in dispute; and neither of which is under any kind of threat, but we had to have show votes to try to gain political advantage in the run-up to the November 5 election even if the narrative supporting the vote outcome is a false narrative.…”