On the recordApril 9, 2014
I don't mean to cut my colleague off, but Senator Lee is here on behalf of Senator Coburn, who has been more involved, and so I will give the history of it. Some folks in the Senate had concerns about the bill and the fact that, in their view, it was not paid for. I met with them and talked through all of these concerns. I could not convince them to drop those concerns completely, so instead we found a solution, which is the Vitter amendment that is at the desk. That amendment has been cleared within its four corners. Nobody in the Senate--no Republican or Democrat--opposes the amendment. We found that solution in order to pass the bill through the Senate, and that addressed Senator Coburn's objections to the bill alone. That is the solution we worked out. I can't fully walk through all of Senator Coburn's thoughts about the bill on its own and whether it was paid for. I can just tell the Senator that I met with him exhaustively, was not able to get him to completely drop his objection, but was able to agree on this compromise--this solution to the pay-for issue. So that is why the amendment, which is at the desk, was proposed, which removes the Coburn objection and thereby fixes the problem. The PRESIDING OFFICER. Is there objection to the request of the Senator from Utah?
