Kevin Cramer Quotes

Rather than negotiating yet another continuing resolution at the last minute, the appropriations process should work as it was originally designed, with appropriations bills passing the House and the Senate and being signed into law by the president, after robust debate, with a process for amendments.

For me, appropriations bills are the glue. These are the bills that must move, no matter what, to keep the government functioning as a reliable element of our society. The Appropriations Committee shouldn't be the most political place to be; it's the place where we have to make the institution function for the country.

Congress, of course, is not bound to accept the president's budget figures, but the House has the sole power to appropriate funds for spending, and it is a duty that should not be ignored.

We're not even supposed to have a break in August if we have not passed the appropriations bills. It's in the House rules.

The debt limit does not affect the deficits or surpluses. The critical revenue and spending decisions are made through the congressional budget process.

There are many aspects of the government that operate off a continuing resolution. It's difficult to do so for the military.

When you're the president of the United States, you have no money unless the Congress says, 'Here's what you can spend it on.'

For every day the government is shut down, it should be that we don't have to pay income tax that day because they're not working.

While the budget resolution is a nonbinding blueprint, it is, nevertheless, an important guideline for Congress. Once the President's proposed budget is received by Congress on the first Monday of February, Congress generally goes to work on appropriating the funds required.

One of the most important tasks of the United States House of Representatives is to pass a budget resolution.

Historically, the responsibility for voting on the debt limit has gone to the party in the majority.

Congress: Bingo with billions.

I would not reconsider the nuclear cuts. The appropriations committee did due process in looking at where there was the ability to cut some spending and that's what we did and now it's time to look forward to fiscal year '12.

Let's push the Pentagon off the fiscal cliff.

The Federal appropriations process is a marathon, not a sprint, and we are at the beginning of that process.

The Budget Act of 1974 established a timetable for the annual budget process. Under Title III of the Act, Congress is to complete action on the concurrent resolution on the budget by April 15.

Shutting down the government is not how you make government work.

When the Budget has once been approved by the President and transmitted to Congress, it is his budget estimate and no officer or official of the War Department would have any right to come up here and attempt to get a single dollar more than is contained in that estimate .

The federal government is currently operating on a budget passed in the dead of night just before Christmas. It comprised three massive documents, ran to a staggering 3,296 pages, weighed in at a hefty 43 pounds, and had a price tag of $650 billion. Congress had about three hours to look at it before voting on it.

It is difficult even now for the President to avoid giving his approbation to any law appropriating money for a road or canal.

The national budget is perhaps the most important and least understood documents in Washington.

I don't care what kind of speeches you make as long as you don't vote against the appropriations.

I can’t come up here each year to the legislature and beg for money.

In the Israeli system, if the Knesset cannot reach agreement on a budget by the end of the year, one-twelfth of the previous year’s budget is automatically appropriated each month for 6 months. If at the end of 6 months, there is still no agreement, we automatically call new elections. We have never had to call an election.

Government can’t work if lawmakers don’t give Government agencies the funds they need to do their work.