Haley Stevens: “I will not yield. No one yielded to me. The impact of what I am saying is, we needed a new income stream. I went to New…”

“I will not yield. No one yielded to me. The impact of what I am saying is, we needed a new income stream. I went to New Orleans with my friend Senator Vitter, and I sought Senator Landrieu's people down there. I saw the Gulf Coast States. They have lost everything. I have never seen a disaster such as that. I was faced with a question of how to find a revenue stream to help my friends. I know they are my friends. I know disasters when I see them. I also was faced with a question from the border security people saying, they have to have money this year. We could not get it. We could not get approval of emergencies. So I met with the Congressional Budget Office. I said, I think you have underestimated the income from ANWR, you have underestimated income from spectrum sales. I have a letter from CBO somewhere. I will be glad to put it in the Record. They said, yes, we did underestimate revenues from ANWR. It will be at least twice as much as estimated, but we cannot change it now. But it is true. They also agreed with me, making the assumptions I made, that there will be more money from spectrum. We allocated the spectrum money in the bill in excess to the amount committed in the bill just passed. We take care of those needs. The first responders is the first group. When you look at the first responders group, they need equipment. There are people involved in homeland security. This bill has $3.1 billion for them in terms of the border security.…”