On the recordJanuary 22, 2018
For 3 years, I have waited for the moment here where I want to commend my colleagues in the Senate, the majority party, for exposing the fallacious argument that you can hold hostage unrelated bills before you pass spending bills. Frankly, we call upon them to pass the appropriations bills to fully fund the government through September. We in this body, last year, had passed all 12 separate appropriations bills, fully funding the military and other government functions all the way through September of this year. That needs to happen in the next 3 weeks, because we have only a 3-week extension that we voted for. I am proud that the American public saw the false arguments that are being used, particularly on the other side of the aisle, where the minority party holds hostage funding bills and demands concessions on other nonrelated legislation. If they want to filibuster stuff over there, first of all, make them do it so the American public can see it, which happened over the last few days, and make it related to the bill on the floor at the time. ____________________
