Lincoln Chafee: “first, I want to start off by commending the Senator from Louisiana because but for his amendment yesterday on the 90…”

“first, I want to start off by commending the Senator from Louisiana because but for his amendment yesterday on the 90 percent, I do not think we would have reached the compromise that we have on the 80-percent maintenance-of-effort level. The Senator is exactly right in pointing out that the House is at zero. All I can say is, obviously I cannot guarantee what will come out of the conference. Nobody can. All I can assure him is that speaking for this Senator, who I presume will be a conferee, plus the other Republican Senators who I presume will be conferees, including the majority leader, all have indicated that they are strongly in support of this effort and this percentage. Now, I do not think we expect that this percentage is what will emerge from the conference. But it is going to be a lot better than zero, I can assure everybody of that.”