Political Quotes

“this amendment responds to a lengthy discussion that we had yesterday about whether the bill should allow the Congressional Budget Office to state when it honestly cannot estimate the direct cost of an intergovernmental mandate. The bill contains a provision that allows the CBO to be honest with respect to its ability or inability to estimate private sector mandates. However, there is no comparable language with respect to CBO's estimates for State and local governments. That was not inadvertent, as the committee reports indicate. But it was wrong. We made an effort in committee to correct it. We had no success. The amendment we have before us adds such language, and it clarifies in those situations where the CBO cannot make an estimate that it may say so, and that that will be true for intergovernmental estimates, not just for private sector estimates. This amendment is important for a number of reasons. I commend the managers as well as my cosponsors for agreeing to it and thank them for their efforts in working this out.”