John W. Olver: “This amendment provides a new wrinkle on what we have been dealing with earlier. Again, this is somewhat different from…”

“This amendment provides a new wrinkle on what we have been dealing with earlier. Again, this is somewhat different from what the gentlewoman has expressed, but as written, it reads, ``Each amount appropriated or otherwise made available by this act that is not required to be appropriated or otherwise made available by a provision of law is hereby reduced by 5 percent.'' Now, what that means is it's not just discretionary expenditure, but it also applies to the nondiscretionary part of this bill. It is not just on the $67 billion of discretionary expenditure that is part of this underlying bill, but the whole $126 billion, which covers all of the contractor authority for all of the small safety agencies that get money out of the Highway Trust Fund, and also applies to the moneys that go to the FTA that come out of the transit portion of the Highway Trust Fund. So that is the way that is written. There is a provision at the end, the part that I read, ``or otherwise made available by a provision of law,'' which leaves CBO unable to score this amendment at all, and they cannot tell us what it really is meant to do. It says it cannot be implemented in this form. So I must oppose this amendment for all of those reasons, because it goes far beyond the discretionary expenditure.”