Kent Conrad: “Sections 502 and 503 of the bill help to ensure that the Social Security surplus is not affected by the costs associated…”

“Sections 502 and 503 of the bill help to ensure that the Social Security surplus is not affected by the costs associated with providing expanded patient protection. The bill extends customs user fees beyond 2003. That is all. The bill does not change the current nature, structure, or purpose of these fees. Customs operations will not lose funds as a result of the extension of these fees. However, the net effect of accepting the Grassley amendment would be that over $6 billion in spending contained in this bill would not be offset. That is spending that represents a transfer of funds to protect the Social Security trust fund. Deleting that offset would cause the Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions Committee to exceed its committee budget allocation. As a result, at the appropriate time I will raise the point of order.”