Political Quotes

“I thank Senator Ayotte. She is a great member of the Budget Committee and a very active and aggressive member of the Armed Services Committee. She is the wife of an Iraq veteran, and knows and cares about these issues and contributes greatly. She and some of our other new Members have been flabbergasted to see how little has been accomplished in the 2 years they have been here. In my experience, Senator Ayotte, this is the worst performance in the 16 years I have ever seen in the Senate. It may be the worst performance in 100 years. As the Senator mentioned, the House passed the Defense authorization act in May. They passed a Defense appropriations bill in July. We have had all summer and done nothing. The Senator is so correct. We had some intense and good debate in the Armed Services Committee over that bill. Yet when it finished, we had a unanimous vote. I thought that was special. So why did the bill not get brought up? I do not know. I feel as if we have missed an opportunity to do our duty. Not only have we not had a budget, not only have we not had a Defense Authorization bill or a Defense appropriations bill, we have not had 1 of the 12 appropriation bills brought to the floor, not 1. I believe that has never happened perhaps ever before, at least in maybe a century. The decision that was made by the Democratic leader was supported by his conference. He cannot just do things that his conference does not support, so they have decided not to do this.…”