Sylvester Turner: “Well, it would seem to me very likely that that would be the result. And I, too, share the gentleman's concern with the…”

“Well, it would seem to me very likely that that would be the result. And I, too, share the gentleman's concern with the double set of books that the Republican majority has begun to keep over the last couple of weeks just to try to show that they can stay within the budget caps of the 1997 Balanced Budget Act. As we all know, if we declare something around here as an emergency, we do not have to count it against the caps. But one thing to keep in mind: every time somebody stands up and says, I want to declare this spending an emergency, they are taking it right out of the Social Security Trust Fund. And the truth of the matter is, if we have things like the census declared an emergency, I think we are committing fraud with regard to the way we keep the Federal books. I mean the census is required in the United States Constitution. We do it every 10 years. And to stand up and say, well, we have to appropriate the money to do the census and call it emergency spending so it will not be counted against the budget caps is disingenuous, in my opinion.”