J. Exon: “as we may be beginning to make progress on this, maybe we can agree to this amendment. I advise my friend from Ohio that…”

“as we may be beginning to make progress on this, maybe we can agree to this amendment. I advise my friend from Ohio that this Senator did not negotiate with the House of Representatives on this matter. I understand that the majority side has been negotiating with them. I have been told by the majority side that the House of Representatives endorses and wants us to leave this matter. We are checking on that right now. I hope that I can reach Senator Domenici so he can come back on the floor, since I believe it was he or one of the Republican members of the Budget Committee who did the actual negotiations with the House on this and not this Senator, or as far as I know any Democrat or minority member of the Budget Committee. Let me emphasize once again that the Budget Committee has always followed the procedure, as has the Senate for 20 years, that when matters with regard to points of order have been raised on the figures supplied to the Budget Committee--which most people would agree is the authority on this, has the staff to follow it, and has the responsibility to work with CBO to get exact numbers--that those matters have traditionally been decided by the Parliamentarian, advising the Chair. We simply want to leave that the way it has always been and not change it. I hope that we will have a more definitive answer to the legitimate question raised by the Senator from Ohio with regard to what is the pleasure of the House of Representatives on this matter.”