Arlen Specter: “before proceeding into the details of this amendment, let me state that it is an amendment which seeks to offer $7…”

“before proceeding into the details of this amendment, let me state that it is an amendment which seeks to offer $7 billion to increase the cap on advanced appropriations under section 401 of this resolution. The budget resolution has increased the President's mark by some $3 billion so that if accepted this amendment for $7 billion will constitute an increase over the President's mark of some $10 billion. Let me say at the outset that notwithstanding the sizable figure involved here, the funding for the subcommittee, which I chair and where Senator Harkin is the ranking member, we will still be more than $5 billion short of where we would have been had the budget for fiscal year 2006 been frozen with an inflation increase, and then the budget for 2007 again frozen accommodating an inflation increase. That has come about. The figures are complicated and technical, but I think it is important to understand where we are coming from on this amendment. For fiscal year 2005 the budget enacted was $143.4 billion. The budget enacted was $141.5 billion for fiscal year 2006, almost $2 billion less. The inflation factor was $4.8 billion. If we take the $1.9 billion reduction and the $4.8 billion, our budget for the fiscal year 2006 was $6.7 billion under a freeze. The budget for fiscal year 2007 has come in at $137.5 billion. What we have is a President's budget which is $5 billion under the enacted budget for fiscal year 2006.…”