| Water Resources Development Act Of 2013 |
May 14, 2013 |
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Tim Kaine, D-VA
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"The two budgets are very different. I deeply believe the Senate budget is superior and the American people, watching the discussions between the two Houses and comparing them, would reach the same conclusion. But at the very least I know this: The American public are entitled to see that debate and discussion. They are entitled to look at the House budget and look at the Senate budget and compare them, just as the conferees would be comparing. They are entitled to watch that process of dialog and debate and, hopefully, compromise. That is, in fact, what they have sent us here to do, and that is what Congresses have done for many years and decades."
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| Water Resources Development Act Of 2013 |
May 9, 2013 |
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Barbara Boxer, D-CA
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"We passed a budget; the Senate passed its version of a budget. The regular order, as I understand it, having asked the Historian to go back and look, is that we then take the House budget and the Senate budget and we go to conference and the conferees resolve the differences. All my friend is asking—and she has asked it or someone has asked it in her stead five times—we are asking our Republican colleagues to allow our leader to name the conferees—of course Senator McConnell will name his—and walk into that conference committee to finish the budget. The budget is unfinished; am I right? We have two versions. We need one version. What the Senator from Washington is telling us, in no uncertain terms, is that the Republicans are stopping this country from having a budget; am I stating it correctly?"
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| We Need To Know Where We Come From To Know Where We Are Going |
April 26, 2013 |
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Louie Gohmert, R-TX
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"Conferees support the FBI’s policy prohibiting any formal non-investigative cooperation with unindicted co-conspirators in terrorism cases. The conferees expect the FBI to insist on full compliance with this policy by FBI field offices, and to report to the Committee on Appropriations regarding any violation of the policy."
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| The Fiscal Cliff |
January 1, 2013 |
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Jeff Merkley, D-OR
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"Once this instrument of obstruction was utilized, then this Chamber often decided to forego the conference committee. We gave up on it. When I was here in 2009, I would say: Well, let’s get the conference committee going. Well, they would not do that because it would take weeks of this Chamber’s time to get the conferees appointed and the three debatable motions done to be able to get to a conference committee. What? Isn’t it outrageous that we cannot even have a negotiation with the House? So we have to go through this complicated process of sending the bill over to the House, and the House has to amend it and send it back to us, and we have to amend it and send it back to them."
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| Air Force Structure |
December 21, 2012 |
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Patrick Leahy, D-VT
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"I find the detention provisions enacted through last year’s NDAA and the failure to fix them this year deeply troublesome. I am also concerned about the extension of overly burdensome restrictions and conditions on the transfer of detainees from Guantanamo, even those who have already been found to have had no connection to terrorism. These provisions do not represent Vermont values, they do not represent American values, and they have no place in this world. As a result of the failure of the conferees to seriously address these fundamental wrongdoings and support the principles of our Constitution, I am unable to support final passage of this year’s NDAA. Moving forward, as I did last year, I hope to foster a broader discussion about these issues and work to make concrete changes to protect American values and champion the rule of law. We need a bipartisan effort to guarantee that the United States remains the model for the rule of law to the world."
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