Lincoln Chafee: “That is a good question. But the answer is--and we have had this raised, obviously, not only on the floor here but in…”

“That is a good question. But the answer is--and we have had this raised, obviously, not only on the floor here but in calls from Governors that come to us. The original plea of the Governors is, ``Why can't we do what we want to do? Who are you in Washington, always telling us, yes/no?'' As the Senator has pointed out, it is the Supreme Court that said no. It is not us who said ``no.'' Indeed, what we are doing is in effect coming to the rescue, if you would, of those communities that want to extend flow control or have flow control because, as the Senator knows, it was declared unconstitutional. So we are stepping in, trying to fill a void, fill a problem that exists. But you say, OK, if you step in just step in for this limited period which is, as you say, the length of the bonds that are outstanding or what the contract requires between the facility and the community-- whatever it might be. But the answer is that in many of these States and communities they set up arrangements based on flow control continuing to exist. In other words, they pass statutes that flow control be there. So we have some occasions where the length of time of the contract is not necessarily going to cover all the expenses and is going to be renegotiated for a variety of reasons, but all with the anticipation that the flow control statute that the municipality had entered into was going to continue to be there.”