Don Nickles: “first I congratulate Senator Shelby for his management of this bill. This is an appropriations bill. The budget…”

“first I congratulate Senator Shelby for his management of this bill. This is an appropriations bill. The budget authority of this bill is actually less than last year's level. And the outlays under this bill, as far as the outlays that are controlled, grew by 3.6 percent. So it is within the budget. It is within the budget that we have passed, and it is also within the budget agreement that the chairman of the Appropriations Committee made with the President. This amendment is not. This amendment does bust the budget. This amendment does have a budget point of order that lies against it. But it also is not necessary. I heard my colleague say it is necessary. Let me state a different opinion than that. In last year's appropriations bill, we appropriated $1.5 billion for election assistance. There is $833 million of that that has not been used. As a matter of fact, there is an election assistance commission that was formed under that legislation. The commissioners haven't even been appointed or confirmed. I understand they are going to be soon. I heard my colleague from Missouri say: We can't take the enforcement provisions unless we get this money. That is not correct. They need the commission. The commission hasn't been confirmed. I am not sure; maybe that is because the names weren't submitted. Maybe they were not confirmed because of a little disagreement between Democrats and Republicans. We have had trouble confirming some people this year.”