Pete Domenici: “I say to the Senator, while you have been here many hours, I have been here a few this afternoon. This is a very unusual…”

“I say to the Senator, while you have been here many hours, I have been here a few this afternoon. This is a very unusual setting. You speak of your rights. We have rights, too. You have the floor. We cannot debate the issue the way things are. If you would like to debate this, I would like to debate it because you have had some free time here to talk about something that is not so. I have already asked you once, and I will ask you again--I will ask you whether or not--I will ask it a different way: How much do you think the Congressional Budget Office says your amendment--this great amendment that is going to stop all of this thievery--can you tell us how much it is going to yield to the taxpayers of the United States? I will tell you the answer. The Congressional Budget Office says zero. You understand, this great amendment that has been spoken of, this process that he has--I don't know what it is. It is an amendment that sets a threshold. It sets a threshold that is higher than the threshold that exists that was already established by the Secretary of the Interior. I don't know how in the world, I ask the distinguished Senator, that is going to yield anything to the people of this country. Maybe you can explain it to us. I believe it is going to yield zero because the amendment is meaningless the way it is drawn. It is not a program. It is not a process.…”