David Vitter: “I thank the Chair. And I appreciate all of those words by my colleague from Louisiana and certainly join her in all of…”

“I thank the Chair. And I appreciate all of those words by my colleague from Louisiana and certainly join her in all of those comments. Now, if I could briefly outline amendment 3728, which has not been called up, but I will outline what it does. Again, the Domenici amendment is crucially necessary for levy and hurricane protection work in south Louisiana. Amendment 3728 would simply supplement that in relatively small ways in terms of dollar amounts but in very important ways. At the outset, before I explain what it covers, let me explain three crucial overall points about the amendment. No. 1, all of the moneys or funds or expenditures in this amendment 3728 are completely offset so it does not increase the size or the cost of the bill whatsoever. No. 2, everything covered in the amendment was actually included in the underlying bill at the committee stage of the process. It has been removed as it comes to the floor, but it was included in committee and the chairman of the subcommittee, the Senator from New Mexico, has no objection to the inclusion of these important items. In addition, the statement of administration policy on the bill, while it highlights a number of items the administration actually opposes in the bill, does not highlight any of the items in this amendment. The administration has not expressed opposition to these items. And No.…”