Patrick Leahy: “last Thursday, September 6, after less than 12 hours of debate, the Senate passed by a vote of 81 to 12 the fiscal year…”

“last Thursday, September 6, after less than 12 hours of debate, the Senate passed by a vote of 81 to 12 the fiscal year 2008 State, Foreign Operations appropriations bill. I think it was the shortest amount of time we have taken to debate and pass this bill. I also think that on the whole we can be satisfied with the outcome. It is a bipartisan bill, and while neither I nor Senator Gregg, the ranking member of the subcommittee who played an indispensable role in getting it done, supports every provision in the bill, that is the nature of the process. I also know there are things in this bill the administration supports and things they don't like. I would remind them that our allocation was $700 million below the President's budget, and the President underfunded a number of programs that have strong bipartisan support-- the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, TB and malaria, to give one example. I would hope the White House would recognize that we tried hard to fund not only the President's priorities but also the requests of Senators of both parties. This is, as sometimes the White House needs to be reminded, a government of equal branches. Senate conferees were named immediately after final passage, and I look forward to sitting down with the House to finish this bill so we can send it to the President for signature as soon as possible.”