Political Quotes

“I am extremely pleased to rise to express my support for the open debate we are going to have on the fiscal year 2017 Energy and Water appropriations bill. I would certainly like to thank the Senator from California and my colleagues on the Appropriations Committee, and I would like to thank Senator Alexander for his leadership and work on their collaboration. As a person who has only been in the Senate for a year and a half and on the Appropriations Committee for about that amount of time, it has been fun for me to watch seasoned pros as they weave their way through the appropriations process. So I thank them for that. But this is what our constituents sent us here to do: to legislate, to express an opinion, to amend and debate. And I appreciate my colleagues' willingness to do that with this piece of legislation. This is a fiscally responsible, bipartisan bill which unanimously passed out of the Committee on Appropriations last week. It is also worth noting--and I have heard it noted already today and will probably hear it many more times--that we are considering appropriations bills on the Senate floor at the earliest point since 1974. I look forward to the bill passing with many priorities that are important to my home State of West Virginia, and I also look forward to passing the other 11 appropriations bills as we move through this process. We can all agree that governing by continuing resolution is not ideal.…”