Heidi Alexander: “I want to thank the Senator from Delaware for his customary leadership. He has been wise to come up with this idea. In…”

“I want to thank the Senator from Delaware for his customary leadership. He has been wise to come up with this idea. In some cases, the Corps of Engineers has completed projects under budget. The Corps had excess non-Federal funds paid by the project's sponsor. His amendment, which I am happy to cosponsor, requires the Corps to provide a list of all the projects that have been completed and have excess non-Federal funds that have not been returned to the project sponsor put on that list. It also requires the Corps to provide a final accounting for each project and the status of the Corps' plan to return the excess non-Federal funds. It does not increase Federal spending. It is intended to ensure that the Corps returns excess non-Federal funds to project sponsors in a timely manner. Let me thank the Republican and Democratic staffs for working with us through the morning in the customary smooth way to get an appropriations bill on the floor. This is the first vote on the appropriations bills this week. We will vote on the Coons-Gardner amendment first and then on the Carper- Alexander amendment second. We have several other amendments waiting for consideration. Senators Thune and Durbin have one that should be filed shortly; Senators Hatch and Udall, the same. We hope to have more votes later this afternoon, hopefully in the area of 5 o'clock. That will be up to the majority leader and the Democratic leader, but we will let Senators know about that.…”