John Ensign: “Reclaiming my time. I will answer the question because I can predict the future because I have seen it here enough. If…”

“Reclaiming my time. I will answer the question because I can predict the future because I have seen it here enough. If you watch and learn from the past, you can predict the future. People will be going after this money and probably even more. These kinds of budget games are played all the time. I wish to make a couple of points to respond to what the Senator from Maine has talked about. First, there is $183 million in the contingency fund this year, and $100 million has been spent so far. There is $83 million left in the contingency fund. She said this is for emergencies--the contingency fund is for emergencies. Well, other than post-Katrina, every other allocation since 2004 from the contingency fund has gone to all 50 States. She says it is only for emergencies. So all 50 States must have had emergencies every year. That is not what the contingency fund has been. It has gone to every State. Our point is that the contingency fund has not been allocated fairly. I mentioned the $183 million, and there is $83 million left for this year's contingency fund. Has anybody noticed that it is all being allocated in the wintertime, so when the warmer weather States need their contingency fund, there won't be any left? That is the point. She had problems with our numbers the other day. So we redid the numbers. We looked at the last 5 allocations of the contingency fund.…”