Frank Lautenberg: “I had asked to be yielded to for a question, but if there is no yielding, if the time is charged to me, I do not need…”

“I had asked to be yielded to for a question, but if there is no yielding, if the time is charged to me, I do not need consent from anybody. If it is our time, we are going to use it. I thank the Senator from Maine but would say no thank you, and I will take this brief minute because what we are looking at is what has passed through the committee and what is actually on the floor as an appropriations bill. Under the appropriations bill--this is CRS--it very simply says $1.338 billion for the underlying bill creates a shortage for the risk- based of $183.53 million. We can turn the table, we can play with the numbers, but we are looking at an appropriations bill. And if we do not believe CRS, then I do not know to whom we ought to turn for advice and for understanding. When the Senator from Maine suggests that my numbers are incorrect, do not take my numbers, please. Just take CRS and see what they say. It makes it all very clear. It is a 60/40 relationship, far different than that which we intended when the amendment passed the committee. I yield the floor. The PRESIDING OFFICER. Who yields time? The Senator from California.”