Senate turns its back on Paul amendment to offer emergency relief from regulators

“The question I have for the Senate is, ‘Has your government gotten out of control?’” Paul said. “Do we really want to live in a country where you have to count how many barnacles there are before you rebuild a bridge?”

{mosads}The Senate did, however, clear a rival amendment offered by Environment and Public Works Committee Chairwoman Barbara Boxer (D-Calif.) that would express the non-binding “sense of the Senate” that agencies ought to work as quickly as possible while implementing all existing laws. 

“My amendment instructs the agencies that the Senate supports a speedy process which is already in the law to review and approve projects,” Boxer said. “Sen. Paul’s amendment is a broad overreach that would endanger the safety of the people every senator represents … It is an overreach. It is radical.”

Paul, however, seized on the fact that there is no force of law behind Boxer’s amendment, dismissing it as “say something and do nothing.” 

Paul’s amendment was actually stopped on a technicality. Democrats objected to it, saying it did not conform to the Budget Act. Paul requested a waiver, which was denied 42-54.