Rick Lazio: “Sure. There is something called the 602(b)s, and they are a cap on the money that each of the 13 appropriations bills…”

“Sure. There is something called the 602(b)s, and they are a cap on the money that each of the 13 appropriations bills can spend. The way the rules work are that we cannot take money from another 602(b) area to put it into a separate and distinct area. Now if I can illustrate that, that means that if we increase funding, in this case for a particular housing program, it must come from within that area that is under the jurisdiction of that particular appropriations subcommittee, and in that subcommittee we have environmental enforcement, veterans benefits and veterans affairs, NASA and housing; those are the main areas. And so as we increase one; for example, if we were to adopt this amendment and the effect of it would be to increase funding in one part of housing, the offset might be to get rid of home ownership programs also for people of low income. The offset might also be to deny health benefits for veterans, to illustrate a point. It might be to eliminate a NASA program or an EPA program. It could not be, under the rules, the budget rules that exist in this House, we could not go out and take money away from the defense budget. That is not the way the rules work.”