Congressional Budget for the United States Government for Fiscal Year 2010--Continued

Floor Speech

CONGRESSIONAL BUDGET FOR THE UNITED STATES GOVERNMENT FOR FISCAL YEAR 2010--Continued -- (Senate - April 02, 2009)

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AMENDMENT NO. 934

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Mr. CORNYN. Mr. President, my amendment would pose a 60-vote point of order against a bill that had not been made available for public review along with the score of the Congressional Budget Office on a congressional Web site for at least 5 days.

As everyone will recall, the President himself said this was his goal, to offer greater transparency, hence greater accountability, and thus instill greater confidence in the people and their Government. Unfortunately, that pledge has been violated more times than it has been honored, and in our rush to pass the stimulus bill that was circulated--the conference report--at 11 o'clock on a Thursday night, we were required to vote on it less than 24 hours later and thus the uproar over the AIG bonuses ensued because, frankly, Members of the Senate did not know what they were voting on and could not know what they were voting on without this kind of transparency.

I commend this to my colleagues. It is consistent with what the President has advocated and I think it is a good way to do business.

Mr. CONRAD. Mr. President, I would ask the Senator from Texas, would he be willing to allow us to take this on a voice vote or by unanimous consent?

Mr. CORNYN. I would say to the distinguished chairman of the Budget Committee, I have three amendments which I have on the dock. This is the only one of those three that I would like to have a record vote on.

Mr. CONRAD. Can I put this another way? This amendment is not germane. So we can have a vote on it, it probably will not succeed, or we could voice vote it and you would succeed.

Mr. CORNYN. Well, we have had this proposition tendered before. I realize that in all likelihood this amendment would be stripped out in conference behind closed doors. I do not think that is particularly an honest way to deal with these important issues--to say yes on the floor and then to strip them out behind closed doors and to act like we are being consistent and not hypocritical.

I understand what the chairman has to do. He will do what he has to do. But I would like a record vote.

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