Angie Craig: “as a cosponsor of Senator Hutchinson's bill to protect the states' claims on the funds from the settlement that they…”

“as a cosponsor of Senator Hutchinson's bill to protect the states' claims on the funds from the settlement that they negotiated with the tobacco industry, I oppose the Harkin-Specter amendment. I am not a lawyer, and maybe that's why I'm not particularly impressed by all the legal hairsplitting we've been hearing from the government's lawyers about their claim to these funds. But you don't have to be a lawyer to recognize unfairness when you see it. In fact, I think my little granddaughter would recognize the story that's unfolding in Washington today: it's called the ``Little Red Hen.'' As my colleagues probably will recall, this story is about some people doing all the work and other people, who didn't lift a finger to help, wanting to share in the product of that work. In this case, we have the states who initiated lawsuits against the tobacco industry, who took all the risks, who received no assistance from the federal government in making their claims, and who ultimately succeeded in negotiating the historic Master Settlement Agreement last November. Now that the work has been done by these 46 little red hens, and the other four who negotiated individual settlements, the federal government wants to sweep in and take over. Mr. President, I do not think what we have here is an attempt to assert legal rights, but an attempt to assert control.”