Judd Gregg: “this will be a $5 billion budget buster. It is $5 billion above the allocation. Just as significant, it is declared an…”

“this will be a $5 billion budget buster. It is $5 billion above the allocation. Just as significant, it is declared an emergency. Now, under the budget rules, an emergency is something that is sudden, urgent, or unforeseen. Clearly, this is not a sudden, urgent, or unforeseen event. In fact, we have spent over $1.8 billion already on interoperability. There are significant dollars in the bill for interoperability. The problem with interoperability is, quite simply, no one can agree on what the interoperability should be yet. In fact, we spent 10 years trying to reach a regime on this. It is called standard P25. It has not been reached yet. We will continue to put money into interoperability, but this money will be misallocated and misspent if it is put in at this level. And it would clearly add to the deficit by $5 billion. So I hope people will support the budget point of order to make the point this is not an emergency. Should this point of order be sustained, there may be another vote. We will have to wait and see what the Senator from Michigan wants to do. The PRESIDING OFFICER. All time has expired. The question is on agreeing to the motion to waive. The yeas and nays have been ordered. The clerk will call the roll. The legislative clerk called the roll. Mr. McCONNELL. The following Senator was necessarily absent: the Senator from Mississippi (Mr. Lott).”