Cord Byrd: “This locks in, as the distinguished Senator from Michigan has stated, it locks in for the life of any new mandate, 5…”

“This locks in, as the distinguished Senator from Michigan has stated, it locks in for the life of any new mandate, 5 years, 10 years, 20 years, or whatever the CBO estimates for every future year. This means that even if we find in some future year--5 years down the road, 10 years down the road--that a mandate can be met for less money, we nevertheless must appropriate the minimum contained in the bill that sets up the mandate for all future years. If less is appropriated in any year, then the agency decides. We have an unelected bureaucrat who, perhaps, will make the decision under a different administration or perhaps under a different administration, last one or two administrations, different members of the Appropriations Committee, different members of the authorizations committee. We have an unelected bureaucrat making that decision. I say that unelected bureaucrat is not only unaccountable to the people, but if we leave it in the hands of the Congress, that is where it ought to be.”