Arlen Specter: “the point of order which has been raised has no substance on the merits. The point of order has no substance on the…”

“the point of order which has been raised has no substance on the merits. The point of order has no substance on the merits because there is no Federal funding involved in the legislation which creates a $140 billion trust fund. All of the money comes from private sources, from manufacturers, and from the insurance companies under the agreement reached by Senator Frist, the Republican majority leader, and then-Senator Daschle, the Democratic minority leader, establishing this trust fund. The Congressional Budget Office filed a letter yesterday, February 13, on the substitute which was offered. Instead of having a managers' package of some 47 amendments, which could have been considered one by one, they were added to the original text of S. 852 as a substitute bill. The Congressional Budget Office letter made the essential conclusion that the substitute is budget neutral. The key paragraph reads as follows: CBO also estimates that, so long as the fund's administrator does not borrow amounts beyond the means of the fund to repay (as the bill would require), the government's general funds would not be used to pay asbestos claims. Furthermore, section 406 of the bill states that the legislation would not obligate the federal government to pay any part of an award under the bill if the amounts in the asbestos fund are inadequate. This is the crucial line: Thus, CBO concludes that the legislation would be deficit- neutral over the life of the fund.…”