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I've been in Congress 14 years. I've been on the Appropriations Committee in which we are in charge of trying to move legislation.

My deal is you start as far to the right as you can get, and go to the conference committee with the Senate, and hopefully end up with something you can live with.

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.

But, you know, all I can do is submit my budget and then make the case to the Legislature to act.

There's a lot of politics over who gets the next allocation of Congressional funding.

I will term-limit myself probably before I would have enough seniority to get a committee chairmanship.

All I want to do is get back to a principle-based Congress.

I've already composed and written a letter to the House administration telling them to withhold my paycheck in the event of a lapse of appropriations.