Mike Levin

If we can imagine a mandate which does not have a sunset provision or is not a 10-year authorization or not a 5-year authorization, it is just a permanent authorization, somehow or the other the CBO has to estimate the cost…

Is that the intent of the sponsors, that the CBO recommends? We do not give them any guidance? That the sponsors of the bill just throw it off to the CBO? We are writing a bill here. What are we urging the CBO to do?

The point is that you are asking the CBO to make an estimate. I am telling you what their conclusion is. I am telling the Senator what the conclusion of the CBO is so we can have a discussion. It makes no difference in my hypothetical…

This is the document created, if I may say so, following all of the input. The CBO has done its work and has consulted with State and local officials. After consultation, it then tells us that this is their best estimate. This is what is…

While we are on this line--I am wondering, while we are focused on this one line of the bill, I have not had a chance to ask my friend from Idaho this question either. Is the reference to ``adjusted annually for inflation,'' adjusted from…

My question is this: On line 15, page 35, there is a reference to the $100 million which the Senator from Oklahoma is now amending to apply to either public or private. And my question that properly should have been addressed to the…

What does the reference ``any one'' year mean, on line 15, page 35? Is that any one year, ever? Is that any one year of the 5 years of the 5 fiscal years? What is that reference?

If the private sector mandate is $100 million more, that would trigger the reform.

Mr. President, I wanted to ask a question of my friend from Oklahoma about the meaning of his amendment. As I understand it, the statement that would be required to be prepared, pursuant to section 202(a), if this amendment is adopted…

My question would be this: The word ``specific'' is not in here. Would this be clearer, does the Senator from Delaware believe, if the word ``specific'' were added before the words ``criteria and procedure"?

Correct. Is there any doubt in your mind one Senator will raise any point of order? There is not 1 out of 100 Senators who opposes--by the way, the Senator from Idaho is a cosponsor of last year's bill.

This bill goes one step beyond that and creates the presumption that we are going to either pay for that increase for the public hospital or waive it. It does not do that for the private hospital. So, we go right down the road together…

The bill does not presume that we will pay for the increase on the private hospital. It does create a presumption that we will for the public hospital. Of course it can be waived by 50 votes. There is a presumption in the bill.

It was not in the bill last year. This was a language that was in a bill introduced on a Wednesday night, which went to a hearing on Thursday morning, which was intended to go to a markup on a Friday morning which we had to plead for a…

I want to commend Senator Bingaman of New Mexico, for his successful effort to modify the Gorton amendment. The modified amendment expresses a sense of the Senate but does not bind the panel on which Senator Bingaman serves. We have asked…

We should allow them to be honest when it comes to the cost of an intergovernmental mandate. That is all I am saying. It is an honesty amendment. By the way, it will allow the Senate to legislate a lot better. We will not be gaining useful…

I think that is exactly what they should say, but you do not allow for it. I am the one who says the bill should allow for it. Let me make sure there is no confusion as to who is saying what. I am the one who says that we ought to allow…

The Senate has no basis. The CBO told us that they cannot make the estimate. You say they can be honest. You ought to say that in the bill, they can be honest. But you do not want to say that in the bill because then the point of order…

If the Director determines that it is not feasible for him to make a reasonable estimate that would be required with respect to Federal private-sector mandates, the Director shall not make the estimate but shall report in the statement…

It is a very good intent. We have a current law which says exactly the same thing. The Budget Act now requires the Congressional Budget Office to make the estimate, where practicable. The chairman, my friend from Delaware, asks, ``Where…

The point the chairman makes, it seems to me, cuts exactly the opposite way. Since an appropriation is hanging on the estimate when it comes to the intergovernmental money, it seems to me that is more of a reason that estimate should be…

I believe if we are going to be straight with ourselves, we have to acknowledge two things: That with this experience that the Congressional Budget Office has in making estimates, they are telling us there are times when they cannot make…

But the question is, if we allow for the fact that a director in the private sector is unable to make the estimate, why do we not have the same language relative to the intergovernmental mandates? Why not the same honesty? Why not the same…

Why, then, do we not have the same language on the intergovernmental as we do on the private?

We do require such a calculation now. We have had something like 850 of those calculations, I think, in the last 12 years. There is a law, the Congressional Budget Act, which requires the Director of the Congressional Budget Office, to the…