C. Young

Mr. YOUNG of Florida

Mr. YOUNG of Florida. That is correct.

Mr. YOUNG of Florida. Mr. Chairman, the plan is as follows: The freshmen have a commitment between now and 8 o'clock at the Holocaust Museum, and we will continue the debate, but we will roll the votes that occur between now and 8 o'clock. Then at 8 o'clock we will take the votes that have been postponed, and then after we have completed that, a decision will be made whether to proceed further into the evening and take votes or to proceed further into the evening and roll the votes until tomorrow or to rise. Mr. Chairman, one of those three options will be announced after the votes at 8 o'clock.

Mr. YOUNG of Florida. If the gentleman would make substantial amendments to this bill, then I think we might remove the suspicion that this is simply a filibuster.

Mr. YOUNG of Florida. I yield to my friend, the gentleman from Oklahoma, with whom I am normally on the same side of the issue.

Mr. YOUNG of Florida. The way the gentleman is proceeding, an inch at a time, is a filibuster. These amendments could have been put together. They could have been done en bloc. They could have been several major amendments that we could have had a substantial debate, and we have wasted a lot of time here talking about philosophy that should have been discussed on the budget bill, when the budget resolution was here. That is the time these arguments should have been made. I would say to my friend that this bill and all of the other bills that we will present to this floor are under the freeze and are within the budget caps of 1997, and meet the section 302(b) suballocation as provided for by the budget resolution. So try to cut the money if the gentleman wants, and believe me, I have been here to vote for a lot of amendments to cut a lot of money out of spending bills, but let us do it in a reasonable, responsible way. Let us combine the amendments so they have some substance to them, and so that we do not spend the next 3 or 4 or 5 days here going over 115 amendments that the introducer admits is a filibuster.

Mr. YOUNG of Florida. Mr. Chairman, I object.

Mr. YOUNG of Florida. I yield to the gentleman from California.

Mr. YOUNG of Florida

Mr. YOUNG of Florida. Madam Speaker, I ask unanimous consent that the Committee on Appropriations may have until midnight, Friday, May 21, 1999 to file a privileged report on a bill making appropriations for the Legislative Branch for the fiscal year ending September 30, 2000, and for other purposes.

Mr. YOUNG of Florida

Mr. YOUNG of Florida. Madam Speaker, I ask unanimous consent that the Committee on Appropriations may have until midnight, Friday, May 21, 1999, to file a privileged report on a bill making appropriations for agriculture, rural development, Food and Drug Administration, and related agencies programs for fiscal year ending September 30, 2000, and for other purposes.

Mr. YOUNG of Florida

Mr. YOUNG of Florida. If the gentleman would yield, I would like to say, Mr. Speaker, that I support the intention of the gentleman from New York (Mr. Walsh) to provide for all the Section 8 renewals even though, as we are all well aware, the budget resolution we are working under requires difficult choices in many of the appropriations bills, including the VA-HUD bill. I believe it will be up to the Members of the subcommittee to determine the best manner in which to allocate these funds.

Mr. YOUNG of Florida. Mr. Speaker, I yield 1 minute to the gentleman from North Carolina (Mr. Price).

Mr. YOUNG of Florida. Mr. Speaker, I am proud to yield 3 minutes to the very distinguished gentleman from California (Mr. Lewis), chairman of the Subcommittee on Defense of the Committee on Appropriations.

Mr. YOUNG of Florida. Mr. Speaker, I am very happy to yield such time as he may consume to the very distinguished gentlemen from Illinois (Mr. Hastert), the Speaker of the House, who was a solid, strong leader throughout this entire effort. I thank him very much for the strength that he had added to the process.

Mr. YOUNG of Florida. Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume. Mr. Speaker, I appreciate the exciting debate that took place as we considered the rule. During that exciting debate, one comment struck me that I thought I really should comment on. It was the comment about having made these decisions in the dark of the night. Yes, Mr. Speaker, we did work in the dark of the night, because we worked for 3 full days and 3 long nights, one night going to as late as 1:30 in the morning, and the final night we went to approximately 10:30. So yes, we did, we worked all day, and we worked all night to resolve the many differences that existed between the House and Senate. But in the conference room, it was very bright. It was very bright because the television cameras were in that room to record every word that was said in a live telecast. So the truth of the matter is, while it might have been dark on the clock, anybody that wanted to watch the television was able to see everything said and done. That was a first, the first time we had done that, when we did the conference committee in front of live TV. I want to pay a special tribute to every one of the conferees on the House side. We had some differences, Mr. Speaker, but we worked them out as Members of Congress in a very logical and very respectful way. I want to especially compliment the gentleman from Wisconsin (Mr. Obey), the leader of the minority party in the conference. Again, we had differences, but the gentleman from Wisconsin (Mr. Obey) helped to make this procedure work. He believes in the institution, as do I, and as do most of our Members in this House. We did come up with a conference report that I would be willing to stand here and make a speech against, just like other Members have done during consideration of the rule, because there are things in this bill that I did not want to be here. But when we go to conference, for any Member who has ever gone to conference with the Senate, we understand that there is give and take. We got basically what the House asked for in the two supplementals that we sent to conference. The Senate added a lot of riders. We took off most of those riders, and the ones that were left, we watered down. They are not nearly as bad as some of the speakers would have us believe they are. Mr. Speaker, we need to emphasize what is good about this bill. The question was raised, how did we get to this number of $15 billion of spending. We got to this number, Mr. Speaker, because we added two supplementals together. Together, those two supplementals, as they passed the House with overwhelming numbers, were over $14 billion. The truth of the matter is, we did add some additional money to this bill in conference. However, some of those items that were added that were nonemergency, that came from the other body, and were offset. They were not new money. They were not emergency money. They are offset. What does this bill do? Whether we declared a war or not, whether Members approve of what is happening in the Balkans or not, the truth of the matter is that American forces are fighting a war in and over Kosovo and Serbia, and that war is very expensive. The President has asked us to provide money not only to replace the munitions that are being used, to replace the spare parts that are necessary to keep our airplanes flying, but the truth of the matter is it is a great expense to fight this war. Mr. Speaker, our forces are stretched very thin in order to fight this war. This bill provides a lot of the money that is needed to recover the wearing down of our forces, the wearing down of our troops, the wearing down of our equipment. The first supplemental we passed was an emergency to deal with Hurricane Mitch disaster in Central America. We funded all of that at the request of the President. Also, the President had asked for $152 million for agricultural emergencies in our own country. We not only did what the President asked for but we increased it by $422 million, at the request of those who have responsibility for agriculture programs in this Congress. After we passed the bills in the House and went to conference, there was a terrible tragedy in Oklahoma. We added additional money to FEMA to take care of tragedies like in Oklahoma and other tragedies in the United States of America. Mr. Speaker, we have a good bill here. It is not a clean as the bills that were passed in the House originally, but we had to go to conference. We had to deal with the other body. So the bill is not as clean as we would like, but it is a good bill. It deserves our support. It addresses the real emergencies that exist today that Americans have a great interest in. As I said, those items that are not emergencies are offset. I will say that again: Those matters included in this bill that are not emergencies are offset. Mr. Speaker, the House passed this bill and the Kosovo bill in clean forms that included $14.303 billion in spending including $1.855 in advance appropriations. The conference report that we have brought back has $15.144 billion in spending including $1.91 in advance appropriations. The major increases are: $900 million for FEMA, $422 million additional for aid to American farmers, $71 for additional migration and refugee assistance, $70 million for the U.S. Emergency Refugee and Migration Assistance Fund, $149 million additional for food aid, $45 million for Assistance to Eastern Europe and the Balkan States, $45 million for the census, and $100 million for temporary resettlement of displace Kosovo Albanians. Major reductions to the House passed versions include $1.044 billion for defense and $596 million for military construction. While the House passed versions included offsets of $1.121 billion, the conference agreement includes offsets of $1.995 billion. This means the level of net spending in this conference agreement is $17 million less than the House passed bills. There has been some concern about the Food Stamp and Section 8 Assisted Housing offsets. While significant amounts are being taken from these accounts there will not be any impact on these programs for the remainder of this fiscal year. The funds are excess to projected needs. I would hope we would not make judgments on offsets on the importance of individual accounts, but rather on whether the funds are needed. This is a critical distinction. The Administration supports these offsets. As I stated earlier, the house passed versions of these bills were clean. The Senate version included many riders. We were able to delete many of these, especially the most contentious ones. Mr. Speaker, the pentagon will be out of money in some critical accounts by the end of May. In addition to solving this problem, this conference agreement will begin to restore our Nation's defenses. It addresses all known needs in the areas of natural disasters, agriculture, defense and humanitarian assistance. Mr. Speaker, we started H.R. 1141 over two months ago. We had a protracted conference with the Senate for over three long days and late nights last week. It has been a tough bill, but it is a good bill. It deserves broad support, and it needs to pass now. At this point in the Record I would like to insert a table showing the details of this conference agreement. [GRAPHIC] [TIFF OMITTED] TH18MY99.000 [GRAPHIC] [TIFF OMITTED] TH18MY99.001 [GRAPHIC] [TIFF OMITTED] TH18MY99.002 [GRAPHIC] [TIFF OMITTED] TH18MY99.003 [GRAPHIC] [TIFF OMITTED] TH18MY99.004 [GRAPHIC] [TIFF OMITTED] TH18MY99.005 [GRAPHIC] [TIFF OMITTED] TH18MY99.006 [GRAPHIC] [TIFF OMITTED] TH18MY99.007 [GRAPHIC] [TIFF OMITTED] TH18MY99.008 [GRAPHIC] [TIFF OMITTED] TH18MY99.009 [GRAPHIC] [TIFF OMITTED] TH18MY99.010 [GRAPHIC] [TIFF OMITTED] TH18MY99.011 Mr. Speaker, I reserve the balance of my time.

Mr. YOUNG of Florida. Mr. Speaker, I ask unanimous consent that all Members may have 5 legislative days within which to revise and extend their remarks on the conference report to accompany H.R. 1141, and that I may include tabular and extraneous material.

Mr. YOUNG of Florida. Mr. Speaker, pursuant to House Resolution 173, I call up the conference report on the bill (H.R. 1141) making emergency supplemental appropriations for the fiscal year ending September 30, 1999, and for other purposes.

Mr. YOUNG of Florida. Mr. Speaker, I yield 2 minutes to the gentleman from Kentucky (Mr. Rogers), chairman of the Subcommittee on Commerce, Justice, State, and Judiciary.

Mr. YOUNG of Florida. Mr. Speaker, I yield myself the balance of the time. Mr. Speaker, first I would like to compliment the Chair for having kept and maintained order throughout this debate. I would like to compliment the gentleman from Wisconsin (Mr. Obey) and the members of the minority party for the responsible way in which they have conducted themselves in this debate and certainly my colleagues on the Republican side for having stood strong for the legislation that we were able to put together over a lengthy process of conference, and I would also like to thank, Mr. Speaker, the staff of the Committee on Appropriations, the majority staff and the minority staff, and I can tell my colleagues they worked. The Members thought they worked long, hard hours, and the staff worked longer and harder hours because when we made the decisions, staff had to put them on paper and get them ready to present to the House. I want to thank the Committee on Rules for being willing to wait for us late Thursday night and being willing to come in yesterday when there was no business in the House in order to actually meet and grant a rule for this bill. Mr. Speaker, I also want to thank the President of the United States because he supports this bill, and I would also like to thank the President of the United States for not only supporting the offsets that have become somewhat controversial here this evening, but having recommended the one major offset that has received so much attention, and that is the food stamp offset. America's economy is good. The demand for food stamps has been reduced. There is a substantial amount of funds for fiscal year 1999 in the food stamp program that will not be spent, and so we have agreement with the administration to use that as the basis for our offsets, and I would point out that the nonemergency sections of this bill are offset. Now many have stood here and said they would vote against the bill, but they refer the farmers, they refer the soldiers and the sailors. Do not vote against them. If colleagues are for them, do not vote against them. A no vote on this conference report is going to be a vote against America's farmers who need help and who need it today, and this bill addresses that aggressively. A no vote will be a vote against the victims of disasters not only here at home in the United States, but at our friends and neighbors in Central America. A no vote will be sending a message to Milosevic that we are not really serious about bringing him to heal. He does not need to get that message, he has got enough problems already. A no vote will be against those soldiers and sailors and airmen and marines and coastguardsmen who are involved in this conflagration, or war, or call it what you will in the Balkans, and, yes, the Coast Guard is involved. When America goes to war, the Coast Guard goes to war, and there are two Coast Guard ships tonight steaming toward the Balkans to join other Coast Guard vessels that are already there dealing with the Bosnian issues. And a no vote would be against reinvesting some of our resources to start to rebuild our national defense capabilities that have been stretched so thin that, if one of the other MRCs in the Korea region or Iraqi region were to happen tonight or tomorrow, we would be in trouble. So, if colleagues are for all of these things, they cannot vote against the bill. So I would hope that everyone will seriously explore their conscience and understand that the things they disagree with are minor compared to the good things that this bill provides. America needs this bill. Our soldiers, and sailors, and airmen, and marines and coastguardmen need this bill.

Mr. YOUNG of Florida. Mr. Speaker, I yield 2 minutes to the gentleman from California (Mr. Packard), chairman of the Subcommittee on Energy and Water. (Mr. PACKARD asked and was given permission to revise and extend his remarks.)

Mr. YOUNG of Florida. Mr. Speaker, might I inquire as to the time remaining on both sides?

Mr. YOUNG of Florida. Mr. Speaker, I yield 3 minutes to the gentleman from Alabama (Mr. Callahan) the chairman of the Subcommittee on Foreign Operations, Export Financing and Related Programs of the Committee on Appropriations. (Mr. CALLAHAN asked and was given permission to revise and extend his remarks.)

Mr. YOUNG of Florida. Mr. Speaker. I yield 2 minutes to the gentleman from Ohio (Mr. Regula), chairman of the Subcommittee on Interior of the Committee on Appropriations. (Mr. REGULA asked and was given permission to revise and extend his remarks.)

Mr. YOUNG of Florida. Mr. Speaker, I yield 1\1/2\ minutes to the distinguished gentleman from Washington (Mr. Hastings), member of the Committee on Rules.

Mr. YOUNG of Florida. Mr. Speaker, I yield myself 1 minute. Mr. Speaker, I take this additional minute to respond to the comments of the gentlewoman from California (Ms. Pelosi) about Hurricane Mitch. Immediately upon the incident of that hurricane, America responded to Central America. We sent our military forces there quickly. They saved lives. They pulled people out of the swollen rivers, out of mud slides. They brought potable water so people could have something to drink or cook with. They provided sanitary conditions. So the United States responded immediately. The supplemental request did not come from the administration until much later following that disaster. Actually, there was some delay in getting to conference on the Hurricane Mitch bill, but we combined the two bills, the Mitch bill and the Kosovo bill, into one supplemental so that we were not spending all of our time dealing with supplementals every week. That is the reason for some delay. I would like to say to the gentlewoman that the gentleman from Florida (Mr. Diaz-Balart) has been all over my case ever since we filed that first supplemental to get it done. So I say to the gentlewoman, it is completed. It is here today. Vote for it, and the money will begin to flow. Mr. Speaker, I reserve the balance of my time.

Mr. YOUNG of Florida. Mr. Speaker, I yield 2 minutes to the distinguished gentleman from Missouri (Mr. Talent).