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Mr. SCHATZ. Madam President, I respect my colleagues' desires to take care of the people and the needs of their State, and I agree there is a need--not just in this State but for a number of States that have been impacted by disasters in recent years.
We must pass a disaster supplemental to provide funding for States fairly and based on need. We wish that the supplemental were in this bill, but it was not agreed to by Republicans in the House and the Senate. Looking ahead, we ought to pass a bill to provide $2 billion and permanently authorize the CDBG-DR program.
As for pay-fors--this is an important point--the spectrum sale funds that my colleagues suggested as a pay-for are already spoken for. That has already been used as a pay-for in previous bills, so we can't double count; and so, unfortunately, I urge my colleagues to vote no. Thank you.
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