Patrick Leahy: “One thing that should be noted, and has been noted on this floor today, is that the former chairman of the Senate…”

“One thing that should be noted, and has been noted on this floor today, is that the former chairman of the Senate Appropriations Committee and its members got all the appropriations bills passed out of Committee early on last year. Had they been brought up by the then-leadership in the House and the Senate we would not even be talking about a CR because, of course, they would have been passed and signed into law. But 2 weeks ago, the Senate and House Appropriations Committees finished drafting H.J. Res. 20, the joint spending resolution. The House passed the joint resolution on January 31 by a bipartisan vote of 286 to 140. The current continuing resolution left to us by the last Congress expires on February 15. So we have to act. Total funding in the joint resolution is within the ceiling imposed by President Bush and the Republican Congress last year for fiscal year 2007. There are, however, some adjustments from the fiscal year 2006 funding levels in the continuing resolution that the Republican Congress agreed to. During the past month, we worked together on a bipartisan basis to make these adjustments so there would not be severe hardships to the most vulnerable people or layoffs of Federal employees. As chairman of the State and Foreign Operations Subcommittee I am gratified by the additional funding that was included to meet urgent humanitarian needs that do not reflect any partisan interest. These are moral needs.…”