Political Quotes

“My question then of the Senator from Ohio is, since this is not an estimate of the 5-year costs, once that threshold has been reached--strike the five. I want to change my 5-year time. I do not want to get two 5-year periods in here. It would just be confusing. There is a 5-year threshold. If, in any of the first 5 years after the mandate is effective, there is a $50 million cost to State and local governments, at that point an estimate is triggered. The estimate, though, is not just for the 5 years. Under the bill--and I think the Senator from Ohio just concurred with me on this--under the bill, the estimate is for all of the years that the mandate is in effect, and that is on page 23, lines 6 and 7: You must identify a specific dollar estimate of the full direct cost of the mandate for each year or other period during which the mandate shall be in effect under the bill. There is no 5-year limit, there is no 10-year limit, there is no 20-year limit, there is no 50-year limit. If the authorization bill has no limit, then somehow or another the CBO is supposed to estimate the direct cost to local government for every year during which the mandate shall be in effect under the bill. My question of the managers is, would they consider changing or amending this bill so that there would be some finite limit on that estimate, even if the authorization bill itself is not limited?”