Political Quotes

“Mr. President, today the Senate will vote on the sixth continuing resolution of the fiscal year. While this is not a record for Congress, it is certainly a number far higher than is appropriate for responsibly funding the government. I want to take a minute to explain how we got to this point. Last December the Senate Appropriations Committee prepared an omnibus spending bill to fund the government for fiscal year 2011. The omnibus was not a perfect bill, but it was based on hundreds of hours of hearings, committee meetings and bipartisan negotiations. Members of both parties had input into the process and content of the bill. So it was perplexing that in the waning hours of the 111th Congress our friends on the other side of the aisle walked away from this bill. Because any action in the Senate is now subject to the approval of a supermajority we were unable to pass the omnibus and instead passed a continuing resolution to fund the government through the beginning of March. I fully understand concerns about using an omnibus as a method for budgeting; it is far from a perfect mechanism. But the alternative is to operate the way we have for the last 6 months, stringing along stop- gap measures that undermine Federal programs and agencies. The impact of uncertain budgeting is felt at the State and local levels as well.…”