Kay Bailey Hutchison: “I rise today with a sense of both joy and disappointment as I am being briefed by my staff about what is the purported…”

“I rise today with a sense of both joy and disappointment as I am being briefed by my staff about what is the purported agreement for the continuing resolution that will fund our country for the next year. There are, indeed, some very good parts of that bill. But I have to say that the distinguished Senator from New Hampshire, Senator Gregg, made a compelling speech this morning about many of the fine points of this bill that are atrocious, and talking about dealing with the administration, the administration which changed the negotiating points constantly throughout this process. I think it is a sad way that we are going to end this session, that the administration has come in at virtually the last hour and held the threat of shutting down Government and blaming the Republican Congress for doing it, in an effort to win things that have been lost on the floor already. So, it is with mixed feelings that I rise to talk about what is in this bill, both good and bad. I am very pleased that we are going to satisfy the basic responsibilities that we must. We are going to support our troops in the Mideast and in Bosnia. But we are going to do it with $1 billion less than we had hoped we could have in our defense budget because this is not a safe world.”