Political Quotes

“One of the problems with S. 1 is that this new point of order that was created originally delegated significant authority to the agency. That language was corrected by the Byrd amendment yesterday. But the Byrd amendment created in the process another complication, another wrinkle; worth doing in order to avoid the delegation for the agencies, but nonetheless, it created another hoop, another hurdle, for this legislation and for any appropriations bill. The Byrd amendment said that we are not going to delegate the cuts to the agencies if the appropriation down the road does not equal the amount of the estimate. Instead, we will have the agency make a recommendation back to the Appropriations Committee which can then go back to Congress which can then adopt it or not adopt it. It is another step after the appropriations process is completed. Another step was added--as far as I am concerned, worthwhile doing again, in order to avoid the delegation, but it is another complication. There are great and grave uncertainties in this process that we have created in S. 1. It is really processing wild. You have to leap this hurdle, you have to evade this trap, you have to swim this moat, you have to jump this hoop. It goes too far in this additional point of order that it adds which was not present last year. It puts tremendous new emphasis on an estimate, emphasis which is excessive. We want the estimate.…”