Political Quotes

“Well, I think there is a serious ambiguity here and, to some extent, an abdication if we let this go without clarification. The abdication is that we must, as a Senate and a House, later on know what the legislation intended. It is central to the bill that the first fiscal year in which a mandate is effective is a critical date in the bill. A new point of order is created based upon it. Last week, I asked the question whether or not the language in my hypothetical meant that the mandate was effective October 1, 2005. And I am going to read that again, because one sentence says yes, it is 2005. In the hypothetical, the Senate mandates reductions of dangerous levels of mercury from incinerator emissions after October 1, 2005. Now, the average reader, the average person reading that bill, would say that is the effective date of the mandate. If it is, again, and I think my friend would agree with me, as the Senator from Ohio agreed with me last week, if the effective date of the mandate is October 1, 2005, when all emissions must comply, then it will never be triggered because all the money is going to be spent before October 1, 2005. But I do not think we can have it both ways. We cannot say ``Well, it is not the date in the statute, October 1, 2005, because all the money is going to be spent before that date, in order to have the emissions be in compliance.'' And that is correct. I think that is a logical response.”