Political Quotes

“Madam Speaker, I rise today in support of H.R. 5860, a bill that keeps the government open until November 17. While I would rather be here speaking on the floor about final appropriations bills, I want Members to understand why passing a short- term funding bill today is so important. First, I want to explain how we find ourselves in this situation. Just 9 months ago, when Republicans took back the majority in the House, our commitment was to regular order for appropriations, no more omnibus measures released in the dead of night, no more Christmas Eve votes on thousands of pages of text that Members of Congress had not read. Unfortunately, there were a few stumbling blocks as we sought to change the process. For example, the administration's budget request was more than a month late. It then took months for the President to come to the table on the debt ceiling negotiations. Even before the debt ceiling agreement spending framework was in place, the Appropriations Committee got to work. In fact, this year, we held more than 70 hearings, reviewed roughly 80,000 requests from Members, listened, and then acted. We began markups in May, 5 months ago, and then made adjustments to reflect changes in the law that set spending caps for the year. The appropriations bills moved through the subcommittees and then the floor. Even though a few bills have more steps to take in the process, I am proud of the work we have done.…”