Byron Dorgan: “I will simply observe that what I have done with this modification is removed the moratorium portion of the amendment…”

“I will simply observe that what I have done with this modification is removed the moratorium portion of the amendment but retained the portion of the amendment that will require the Commission on Unfunded Mandates to give us the information in the 2-year study of these costs so the next time we come with this kind of amendment, we have the data necessary to support it. I do not expect to cease and desist in my efforts to prevent the Federal Government from leading in a direction that I think is unwise. I admit, and I think others admit, we do not know what this costs. That is the point of it. Retaining that portion of the amendment will require the study be done to give us the information so that we do know what it will cost, and in 2 years I hope we can come back and squash the requirement that exists for the Government to want to do things that are unreasonable. I might also say, in the middle of all this, we will intend once again to prohibit DOT from doing anything that spends the taxpayers' money to convert road signs in the meanwhile. So with that, I ask that the two managers of the bill support this modification.”