Political Quotes

“let me get in on this very elucidating discussion my colleagues are having. It seems to me that if the emergency designation was taken off the FEMA amendment without offsets, I believe this bill would be subject to a point of order. In particular, we would have to come up with offsets of $1.6 billion in budget authority for the current year. Plus, we also would have to offset the outlays. If you are trying to take $1.6 billion in budget authority out of a program 7 months into the year, the impact on any one program would be devastating and, in many cases, would defund the program. If there are programs with such offsets which my colleague can identify where there is totally wasteful spending, we would be happy to discuss those offsets. Frankly, I don't know of any program from which we could take $1.6 billion in budget authority out of this year's appropriations in the current fiscal year 1998. I agree with many of the things the Senator from Oklahoma has said. He is very eloquent. I look forward to going into battle with him to trim down and to rationalize the emergency funding process. We need a champion like the Senator from Oklahoma. I really appreciate him reading the plaintive words we put in the committee report. I did not think anybody read committee reports. I am deeply indebted to my colleague for laying them out for the Senate, because nobody would have believed me if I had read them.”