Harry Reid: “what we have done is meet with educators, we have met with members of the Hispanic community, and we have come to the…”

“what we have done is meet with educators, we have met with members of the Hispanic community, and we have come to the conclusion that the programs that are included in this amendment are vital and should be increased and not decreased, and that these programs are, we think, programs that, as I indicated briefly in my statement, will not cost this country money but will save the country money in the long term. While the figure we have come up with may not be magically correct--I would like to have had more, but in working with the minority staff, we recognize there is a limit to what we can do, but we believe this is a small enough number that people should simply vote to waive the Budget Act. And I am confident there will be a budget point of order raised against this amendment on a bill such as this bill. I say to my friend that a few months ago we were going to give Turkey $6 billion to help us in Iraq. Maybe we should say that $200 million to help people here who are going to help our country is just as important as that gift we were going to make to the people of Turkey.”