[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 158 (2012), Part 9]
[Senate]
[Page 12655]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                     6-MONTH CONTINUING RESOLUTION

  Mr. COCHRAN. Mr. President, agreeing to put the government on 
autopilot for 6 months is no great achievement. It simply means more 
drift. It means a longer period of uncertainty for government agencies 
and the people they serve, more spending on ineffective programs and 
outdated priorities, and inadequate investment in programs that merit 
additional resources.
  My preference is that we complete our work and make specific spending 
choices based on the relative merits of government programs. There is 
no excuse for the Senate not to be considering the appropriations 
bills. Our committee members have done the work of scrutinizing 
budgets, holding hearings, and drafting bills. Those bills deserve to 
be considered by the Senate, negotiated with the House and sent to the 
President as soon as possible.
  I congratulate the distinguished chairman of our Committee on 
Appropriations, Mr. Inouye, for his dependable leadership on getting us 
to this point. I look forward to continuing our efforts to extend our 
appropriations authority for the balance of the fiscal year.

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