Judd Gregg: “I wish to speak briefly. Later on, we are going to have a vote on the amendment offered by Senator Biden for a…”

“I wish to speak briefly. Later on, we are going to have a vote on the amendment offered by Senator Biden for a billion-dollar expansion of the COPS Program. That proposal is put in the context of Katrina and the effects of Katrina on the Gulf States. I have come to the Chamber a number of times in the last days, talking about how we put forward an orderly process in addressing the issue of trying to restore and rehabilitate and help the people who have been impacted by Katrina. The leader, much to his credit, has begun and initiated that process, using the strength of the authorizing committees that have jurisdiction. What I do not think we want to do is end up with a haphazard, rifleshot ``I have a good idea; let's come to the floor and offer an amendment'' approach to this because we are talking literally of tens, potentially hundreds of billions of dollars. We have already spent $60 billion and aggressively stepped forward as a Congress to do that. It was appropriate, and the leader again needs to be congratulated for his initiative when he moved $10 billion when we were essentially on break as a Senate and then got up the additional $50 billion last week.…”