Cochran Urges Continued Cooperation as Committee Again Approves all 12 Bills
WASHINGTON, D.C. – Senate Appropriations Committee Chairman Thad Cochran (R-Miss.) today addressed the outlook for the FY2017 appropriations process following the committee’s successful approval of all 12 annual appropriations bills for the second straight year.
The twelfth and last FY2017 bill, the Department of State, Foreign Operations, and Related Programs Appropriations Bill, was approved by the committee on Wednesday by a 30 to 0 vote. This is the earliest the committee has completed markups for the regular appropriations bills since 1988.
“I am pleased that the Appropriations Committee has completed its work on the 2017 bills, but our work is not done. All Senators should have an opportunity to consider these bills. That will require continued bipartisan cooperation as we move forward,” Cochran said.
“I thank the members of this committee and Majority Leader McConnell, who has made it a priority to designate floor time for all Senators to debate and amend these bills,” he said. “I also appreciate the cooperation of Vice Chairwoman Mikulski for the progress we’ve made this year.”
The committee has worked under an accelerated schedule, setting records for the earliest bill markups in years. Senate passage in May of the FY2017 Energy and Water Development Appropriations Bill was the earliest that a stand-alone appropriations bill has been approved by the Senate in more than 40 years. The Military Construction and Veterans Affairs and the Transportation, Housing and Urban Development appropriations bills have also been approved by the full Senate.
The Senate FY2017 appropriations bills were overwhelmingly bipartisan and were approved by a cumulative 345 to 15 vote in committee.
Last year, the committee approved all 12 of the regular appropriations measures for the first time since 2009. The measures were reported to the Senate by a combined vote of 277 to 83.
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