Kay Bailey Hutchison: “I want to, first of all, read the cosponsors of the amendment in the proper order. They are Senators Santorum…”

“I want to, first of all, read the cosponsors of the amendment in the proper order. They are Senators Santorum, Hutchison, Craig, Kyl, Frist, McConnell, Talent, Thune, Collins, Murray, and Byrd. That is the order of everyone coming on board. I so appreciate Senator Murray and Senator Byrd also being cosponsors of this amendment. Frankly, all of us were taken aback last week when we got this information, and we did come together in a bipartisan way to try to address the issue very quickly. That is why we are now trying to put an emergency amendment on the vehicle that is on the floor today. We want to make sure the Veterans' Administration has the money it needs and that it doesn't take from other very essential accounts, such as maintenance or capital. We want to have sound financial management as well as serving veterans needs. It would be terrible to go into the next fiscal year, starting October 1, in any kind of a deficit situation. My bill, the Veterans' Administration and Military Construction Appropriations bill, was scheduled to be marked up tomorrow. Clearly, when we heard that the Veterans' Administration did have problems with its projections, we decided to put that off until mid-July. I hope--and it is my intention--by mid-July to have better information so that we will know what the $1.5 billion will cover between now and October 1 and what is going to be necessary for the 2006 budget, if anything, beyond the $1.5 billion.…”