Judd Gregg: “the Democratic leader on the bill has every right to make a point of order. Clearly, the Chair will rule they are well…”

“the Democratic leader on the bill has every right to make a point of order. Clearly, the Chair will rule they are well taken. Let's talk about the substance quickly. They are essentially technical points of order. Two deal with reports and the other with an issue of liability which is very narrow, dealing with what people are told when they come into an emergency room. Essentially, the practical effect of doing these technical attacks on this bill will be that the bill must go back to the House of Representatives and the House of Representatives is going to agree and knock that language out. But the House is not here. So what is the real practical effect of this? It is that the Katrina money in this bill will not be spent. The TANF Program, the welfare program, will lapse. The Medicare physicians payments increase, which basically makes Medicare physicians whole, will not occur. Transitional medical assistance for families who worked their way off welfare will be lost. And the therapy caps for seniors who suffer strokes will be lost during this interim period. Why would we want to do that simply to go through a technical exercise? It makes no sense at all, other than the fact that the other side of the aisle wants to delay the process. But in the process of delaying for purely technical reasons--I mean, two reports are being challenged. We get thousands of reports in this institution.…”