Kay Bailey Hutchison: “I wanted to answer one point of the Senator from Louisiana on his amendment, and that is the point that the small…”

“I wanted to answer one point of the Senator from Louisiana on his amendment, and that is the point that the small entities would be covered under the reg-flex amendment that we adopted yesterday. In fact, the reg-flex amendment covers cost-benefit analysis, but there are many small entities that would not get the risk analysis that is covered by this bill, and these are the entities that would be lost between the $50 million and $100 million threshold. So it is very important to the small towns and the water districts and the small businesses that they have the availability of risk analysis for sound, good regulatory bases, just as the larger entities would, and perhaps they need it even more because they do not have the legal staffs that are available in the upper echelons. I did want to make that one point so that it was clear that we need risk analysis and the sound basis that risk analysis would provide for the $50 to $100 million category that would be left out if we adopt this amendment.”