Sentence examples for passing appropriations from inspiring English sources
He did say he wanted to spend much of next year on the fundamental congressional task of passing appropriations bills.
The time wasted debating a balanced budget amendment would be better spent taking care of the House's long list of unfinished business, such as passing appropriations bills.
Democrats avoided passing appropriations bills last year for similar reasons, and that failure almost led to a government shutdown this year when Republicans exploited it.
Mr. Rubio is one of several senators who have blocked a basic function of government: a conference committee to work out budget differences between the House and Senate so that Congress can start passing appropriations bills.
The Senate defeated an amendment proposed by Senator Jim DeMint, Republican of South Carolina, that would have kept the spending measure in force until Feb. 4, preventing Democrats from passing appropriations bills in the lame-duck session set to begin on Nov. 15.
Yet moderates and members of the appropriations committees warned that the spending levels in the budget plan were already unrealistically low, and that passing appropriations bills would become even more difficult if conservatives insisted on further cuts or more debt reduction.
And we ought to be on the budget, passing appropriation bills in a proper way.
"The president suggests a budget, but, under the Constitution, Congress passes appropriations bills," Sen. Lamar Alexander (R-Tenn)., an influential appropriator on energy issues, said in a statement.
Congress leaves for its summer break in August (thereafter it will do little but pass appropriations bills).
Because Democrats did not pass appropriations bills last year, the government has been operating since October with appropriations continuing at the previous fiscal year's levels.
But the failure to pass appropriations measures this year would prove an embarrassment for the Republican leaders of the House and Senate, who have repeatedly criticized Democrats for failing to pass spending bills last year.
