Political Quotes

“What this bill requires us to do, unlike last year's bill, is to get an estimate which at times we know is impossible to make from the experience of CBO, even on a bill, and we know it is even more impossible on more amendments to get. There is no provision in the bill that we even have standing as individual Members of the Senate to obtain the estimate, in any event, since the only ones that seem in the bill to be guaranteed that estimate from the CBO would be bills that come to the floor that have been approved by committees and, to the extent practicable, Chairs and ranking members of committees. I do want to go back, however, to my first question, which is, what is the effective date of the mandate in this hypothetical that I have given? And again, so that we are all working from the same hypothetical, it mandates reductions of dangerous levels of mercury from incinerator emissions after October 1, 2005, and the EPA is designated to determine what constitutes a mercury level dangerous to human health. My specific question is, What is the effective date of that mandate since that is what triggers the estimate? It is critical that we know the effective date because that is when the 5 fiscal year estimates begin.”