On the recordNovember 1, 2011
upon passage of this bill, I want to take a moment to thank my ranking member, Senator Blunt, for his guidance and support throughout this process. He and his staff, Stacy McBride and Mary Koskinen, were extraordinarily helpful to me and my staff as we put this bill together. I also thank my staff--Galen Fountain, Jessica Frederick, Dianne Nellor, Bob Ross, and Chad Metzler--for their excellent work. This is an austere bill. As I have stated before, almost every category of funding is lower than last year and much lower than the year before. We have had good debate on the floor about various provisions in the bill, and we have taken many votes. The process has been open and transparent. We have followed the regular order, and this bill was considered on the Senate floor. We can now conference this bill with the House and hopefully send it to the President shortly after that. ____________________
