Timothy Roemer: “Mr. Chairman, I cannot help, in listening to the debate, but be reminded of a great line from a great movie which…”

“Mr. Chairman, I cannot help, in listening to the debate, but be reminded of a great line from a great movie which happens to take place in a prison. The name of the movie is ``Cool Hand Luke.'' He is incarcerated in prison, and the warden is punishing Cool Hand by making him dig holes. And he is out there digging a hole. He gets done digging this hole, and the warden comes out and says, ``Luke, you got a hole in the yard. Fill it up.'' The warden goes back inside. Luke has to fill the hole back up. The warden goes back outside and says, ``Luke, where did that hole go? I want you to dig another one.'' This goes back and forth. Finally, the warden goes out and says, ``Luke, what we have here is a failure to communicate.'' That is what we are doing right here with the language in this bill. It is a failure to communicate on the part of the Federal Government and our States. Under this bill, the Federal Government is saying to the States, ``You either dig this hole or you dig this hole, the way we want you to do it. And if you don't do it our way, then either this pot of money for $5 billion or this pot of money for $5 billion, you are not going to get anything.''”