[Congressional Record Volume 155, Number 36 (Monday, March 2, 2009)]
[Senate]
[Page S2646]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                         APPROPRIATIONS PROCESS

  Mr. ALEXANDER. Mr. President, I thank the majority leader. On his 
comments about the omnibus appropriations bill, two brief points. One 
is that, of course, all Senators welcome the opportunity to debate and 
amend the bill. Senator Byrd has argued eloquently, as the majority 
leader himself has, that the opportunity to debate and amend bills is 
an important part of what makes the Senate unique. We often tend to 
argue that point more eloquently when we are in the minority. 
Amendments and debate are what make the Senate the Senate. It gives us 
a chance to represent the people who send us--the people for whom we 
work. All of us on the minority side appreciate that this year the 
majority leader has--as we believe he should, but nevertheless he has--
tried to create an environment in which we can debate and amend. 
Obviously, amendments aren't going to always be amendments we agree 
with. I don't agree with all the amendments that come from our side 
either, but I appreciate that chance to offer amendments, and we would 
like to see the Senate function in a way that gives us a chance to 
represent the people who hire us.
  Second, I suspect every member of the Appropriations Committee and 
most Members of the Senate hope we can get back to the practice of 
passing our appropriations bills one by one and acting on them before 
the beginning of the fiscal year, which is October 1. I would hate to 
think how much of the taxpayers' money we must waste each year by 
missing that deadline, but grouping these measures together into giant 
``omnibus'' bills, and by passing continuing resolutions which don't 
take into account the differences of opinion among members of Congress 
and the administration about budget priorities. I would hope we could 
get back to the practice of finishing our work and taking the bills one 
by one as we did not so long ago.
  I appreciate the majority leader mentioning the fact that we will be 
debating all week on this appropriations bill, to try and give this 
massive bill the scrutiny it deserves. It would have been much better 
if these nine appropriations bills had been enacted last year, before 
October 1, and we could take them into account when we voted on the 
stimulus bill last week. That is the way we should have been able to do 
that, but we weren't.
  Mr. REID. Mr. President, I would say to my friend who has been 
Governor of his State and a Cabinet Secretary, ran for President, and 
now a Member of the Senate, I think he has a foundation of 
understanding how important it is that we move these appropriations 
bills. This is a difficult situation. We have done it quite a few times 
in recent years, and it is not the best way to legislate. The Senator 
from Tennessee and I agree on that.
  I have to say to my friend, there are a number of people in my caucus 
who come to me and say: Why are you making us take these tough votes 
and why are you talking about more votes on this bill? Because in 
keeping with what the Senator from Tennessee said, I hope we can 
continue doing this. I think the Republicans have not offered some easy 
amendments--I wish they had been a little easier on us--but that is the 
way it is. That is why I wanted to spend a little time this evening 
talking about the range of amendments we already have which have been 
hard votes and perhaps hard for both sides in many respects.
  I support the statement of my friend from Tennessee that we are all 
going to try to arrive at the same place. It is just that how we get 
there sometimes doesn't correlate.
  Mr. ALEXANDER. I thank the majority leader.

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