On the recordJuly 16, 2015
I ask that 30 seconds of my time be yielded to the Senator from Ohio. I oppose this amendment. I thank the Senators from Tennessee, Washington, and North Carolina for making it less onerous. We did come to a compromise. As he said, it starts at $17 billion, but there is still a major fallacy here. When we change formulas, we have always held harmless the States that would lose money, but we have been able to increase money. In this bill, we don't. We keep it flat. So we are robbing Peter to pay Paul, which will be an awful precedent which will bite every one of us. Second, my good friend said the money should go to people from poverty, but they also voted against the Merkley amendment, which required the money to go to people in poverty, and now it can go anywhere. So I respectfully urge my colleagues to oppose this amendment, although it is improved from the original. The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from Ohio.
