Barbara Boxer: “All right, in 3 minutes 17 seconds, I want to say again how happy I am. I am smiling from ear to ear because this has…”

“All right, in 3 minutes 17 seconds, I want to say again how happy I am. I am smiling from ear to ear because this has been an amazing road. I think it is important to note that when we started out, we had a little surprise from the CBO that both Senator Inhofe and I were surprised about--that our last bill had some open-ended language that we didn't realize. We had to make this fiscally responsible. We did. Senator Inhofe is a man of his word. He said these are criteria I want. We have to make sure these projects have studies; that the local people want them and there will be a local match; that they stand up to the light of day. I agreed with him. Once we were able to agree on those criteria, the rest became easy because we had to tell people no, but we did it not on a whim but on a set of criteria that we agreed to. Our staffs have come to know each other very well while working on this. So between the staff and colleagues coming and telling us what they needed, I think we have a bill that meets everybody's needs. In closing, I thank Senator Landrieu for her comments because I think, as we look at this bill, clearly--and there is a lot of talk about priorities--we get our priorities straight. There are amendments we defeated that said we don't like the priorities. This bill looks at Louisiana and says you are our priority. That is important. We did it.…”