Alan Simpson: “Woman, this is the same debate over again. We're taking money from the Office of the Secretary, which is down some…”

“Woman, this is the same debate over again. We're taking money from the Office of the Secretary, which is down some $30-odd million, $33 million, I think it was, from the budget request of this year; then we've taken $20 million out of that already to put into the Land and Water Conservation Fund. This would take more money out of the Office of the Secretary. It seems like every time somebody has an amendment that they want to offer to fund some program that they believe is important--and oftentimes they are important--the savings account that you get it from is the Office of the Secretary. Not only in this bill, but in other bills. We take it out of administration. That's always the easiest thing to do, but the fact is that the Office of the Secretary has taken a pretty good hit in this bill both during the markup and here on debate on the floor, and so I'm afraid I have to oppose this amendment because I think it hits an account that is already substantially lower than what was requested. I would oppose the amendment.”