Political Quotes

“If I may say so, we are introducing a tremendous ambiguity, because we are saying in the bill that the first fiscal year after the effective date, and each 4 fiscal years thereafter, we will determine a critical estimate. I am giving the managers and the sponsors of the bill what the CBO tells us. I am laying it out. I cannot be clearer than that. The CBO comes back and says these are the 10 years prior to that effective date of October 1, 2002. We just cannot simply say, well, they will determine the effective date. The sponsors of the bill would have an intent, I hope, as to what is the effective date for the purposes of this bill. I think it is going to be absolutely essential that we get an answer to that question because there is an awful lot that is going to hinge on when the effective date is. The way I wrote the hypothetical, it said: You must reduce dangerous levels of mercury from incinerator emissions after October 1, 2005. That is the way the bill hypothetical states it. When I asked the Senator from Ohio last week when is the effective date, the Senator said--and I happen to agree with him, since much of the costs are going to be before 2005, probably all of the costs, because they want to be in compliance by the October 1, 2005, date. So over the weekend, I decided we would come up with an actual CBO estimated direct cost. Here it is. The sponsors of the bill, it seems to me, should say what the intent of the bill is.…”