Max Baucus: “I said one of the most. I did not say ``the.'' He is saying that, under the law, the allocation is made according to the…”

“I said one of the most. I did not say ``the.'' He is saying that, under the law, the allocation is made according to the best data available. The fact is the data was available and is available in 1994. Do you know what happened? Some bureaucrat punched the wrong keys. So the allocation was put over to the general fund instead of the highway trust fund. The data is always available. It is collected. Just some bureaucrat, somebody, made a mistake and punched the wrong buttons in the computer. So the allocations from States, gasoline receipts from States, a portion of it, was put in the wrong account. It was put in the general fund, not the trust fund. The data was available. More importantly, I am astounded at the argument of the Senator from Texas. The Senator from Texas who rails against bureaucracy, who rails against the Federal Government, is standing here tonight basically standing up for the bureaucratic ``snafu protection act.'' As he says, if a bureaucrat makes a mistake, we do not correct it. If the bureaucrat makes a mistake, we do not correct it, and we do not come back here on the floor and try to correct the mistake. I am astounded, absolutely astounded, that the Senator from Texas would stand up and say we should let a bureaucrat who makes a snafu continue the effect of that mistake and do not correct the mistake even though the result is $1.6 billion of unfairly distributed highway trust funds. That is essentially what he is saying.…”