C. Young

Mr. YOUNG of Florida

Mr. YOUNG of Florida. Mr. Speaker, I yield myself 30 seconds. I want to thank the gentleman from Texas (Mr. Edwards) for his response. And he is right. My wife is a real angel and commits a large portion of her time to helping soldiers and especially the wounded soldiers, and their families. Her commitment to the quality of life of our military is really special, and it gives me a really great feeling to know the extent that she is involved, and I appreciate the gentleman's calling that to the attention of our colleagues. I do not want to overlook the fact, as we are talking about hurricane relief, that the underlying bill is an excellent military construction bill that the gentleman from Texas (Mr. Edwards) and the gentleman from Michigan (Chairman Knollenberg) have presented. Mr. Speaker, I yield 2 minutes to the gentleman from Florida (Mr. Putnam), another Floridian who has hosted hurricanes.

Mr. YOUNG of Florida. Mr. Speaker, I yield 3 minutes to the very distinguished gentleman from Florida (Mr. Shaw). I do know that the gentleman from Florida lived through at least two hurricanes in his own home battered by the storms.

Mr. YOUNG of Florida. Mr. Speaker, I yield 5 minutes to the gentleman from Florida (Mr. Foley), a gentleman who played host to at least three hurricanes in his district, and he might have had all four of them. His district suffered a lot of the damage.

Mr. YOUNG of Florida. Mr. Speaker, I yield myself 1 minute. Mr. Speaker, I had mentioned the names of the gentleman from Michigan (Mr. Knollenberg), chairman of our subcommittee and his ranking member, the gentleman from Texas (Mr. Edwards), and I mentioned my friend, the gentleman from Wisconsin (Mr. Obey), ranking member on the full Committee on Appropriations. But the gentleman who just left the well, I would like our colleagues to know, there have been many critical points as we have tried to get this legislation to closure. Last night, we had a number of those critical points and the gentleman from Washington (Mr. Dicks), who just left the well, at one point offered very important help, and I just appreciate the fact that he did. He can claim a lot of responsibility for the fact we are here today. Mr. Speaker, I yield such time as he may consume to the gentleman from California (Mr. Lewis), chairman of the Subcommittee on Defense on our Committee on Appropriations. And when I talk about having critical moments last night, it was early this morning, at around 2 a.m., that Jerry and I talked, because we had another very critical problem, an obstacle that had to be overcome. I told him the problem, and he offered a solution. He provided very important help this morning in the conference, and that help was very obvious.

Mr. YOUNG of Florida. Mr. Speaker, I yield back the balance of my time.

Mr. YOUNG of Florida. Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I might consume. I certainly would have had liked to have had more time to yield to the gentleman from Kentucky (Chairman Rogers). I sort of like what he was saying, but I think there are many people who deserve more credit than I on this issue of getting our job done. I appreciate the comments of the gentleman from Kentucky (Mr. Rogers) and also the gentleman from Texas (Mr. Edwards) and the gentleman from Michigan (Mr. Knollenberg), the chairman of the subcommittee. They have done an outstanding job. They have produced a Military Construction bill that is really good, especially for the people who serve in our military, and for their quality of life and housing. They have just done an outstanding job, and I cannot say enough good words about the work that they have done. But I am going to talk about the other part of this bill, and I thank them for allowing the full committee to piggyback on their subcommittee work to include the Hurricane Supplemental Relief Act. I am not going to take a lot of our time. We have discussed this supplemental bill so many times, not only here on the floor and in committee, but in person, in meetings, and on telephone calls. Just briefly, let me say that last Wednesday when we passed the hurricane supplemental, I had two bills introduced in the House, H.R. 5212, which is the one that we passed, and H.R. 5227, which I had stated was a much better bill. H.R. 5212, as I also said, was a very good bill as far as it went, but it did not go far enough. H.R. 5227 was better. Well, what we are considering today is very, very close to H.R. 5227, which is the better bill, and we are excited about the quality of the legislation and what it does for the people of the State of Florida. Again, as I have done in the past, I want to compliment all of our leadership who have worked hard to help us make this happen. There were a lot of obstacles to get to where we are today. I have to tell my colleagues, for those that have been to conference and had difficulties, they know what I mean, but for those who have not, just let me say that was not easy. It was a big challenge. The gentleman from Wisconsin (Mr. Obey), who oftentimes we have disagreements on the floor on issues procedurally, has been totally cooperative. He has helped us move these bills along, and I want to thank the gentleman from Wisconsin (Mr. Obey) considerably for everything that he has had to endure as we were preparing this legislation. I want to thank our leadership on both sides of the aisle and in the other body for trying to help smooth the way to get this bill to where it is today, and they have all helped. There were a lot of obstacles as I have said. They all helped. I want to recognize the Members of the committee, especially the ones from Florida, many of whose districts suffered many of the damages. This delegation of ours, and we have a split delegation, Republican and Democrat, came together to help the people of our State who experienced such tragedy from these four major hurricanes. I mentioned the gentleman from Florida (Mr. Boyd), he and I went to Florida together and looked at some of the damage from Hurricane Ivan. I went to Florida with the President to view some of the damages with him, and I live in Florida, so I was in Florida during several of these hurricanes. I had to evacuate at one point, which I did, and evacuated almost into the path of the storm. It has been quite an experience. The President of the United States made a firm commitment to those of us in Florida and neighboring States that were affected seriously by the hurricanes. We negotiated for a week to get the bill we are presenting today. The President of the United States made a promise to the people of Florida. He has kept that promise. He has kept his commitment. This legislation is proof positive that what President Bush promised, he delivered. I want to say also that the Governor of Florida, Jeb Bush, is almost a Superman in the way that he managed the response to these hurricanes, working not only with Federal officials, but also working with State officials, county officials, city officials, voluntary organizations like the Red Cross, the Salvation Army and so many others; Governor Bush managed this effort and did such a tremendous job. I want to thank the Florida National Guard under the leadership of General Barnett. The Florida National Guard responded with a fantastic response, and I visited with many of the Guardsmen, as did the gentleman from Florida (Mr. Boyd) and the gentleman from Florida (Mr. Miller). We visited quite a few of the Guardsmen that were working on the recovery and protecting property, and stopping looters. Florida National Guard did an outstanding job. Our first responders, our police, our firefighters, all did such a tremendous job, and I wish we had a lot more time to pay tribute to all of the people who helped, but especially my delegation, the people that I work with on a daily basis. Both sides of the aisle worked hard. They were committed. They were dedicated, and together, we made sure that this relief package came together today. Mr. Speaker, I reserve the balance of my time at this point if there are other speakers on the other side.

Mr. YOUNG of Florida. Mr. Speaker, I yield 1 minute to the gentleman from Florida (Mr. Weldon), from Florida's space center.

Mr. YOUNG of Florida

Mr. YOUNG of Florida. Mr. Speaker, I thank the gentleman for yielding me this time, and I take this time to say that these are the last appropriations matters that we will deal with prior to the election. But I want the Members to know that when we come back in November, we and our counterparts in the Senate will have worked during the break to try to provide for the rest of the appropriations bills, that have not been completed in an omnibus package that we hope will be able to conclude the business of the 108th Congress. As we prepare to do that, I want to thank the gentleman from Kentucky (Mr. Rogers), the chairman of this Subcommittee on Homeland Security, and the gentleman from Minnesota (Mr. Sabo), the ranking member. This is an extremely important piece of legislation. They have done a really great job. I can tell my colleagues that there have been many, many obstacles, and they have worked really hard around those obstacles, and they have produced a good product. But none of this could have happened, and none of what we just did earlier on the Military Construction bill or the hurricane supplemental, without tremendous staff. When it is all said and done, and the Members have their debates and their arguments and have made decisions, there is an awful lot of staff work that has to be done to help make that happen, and then to produce the product that we write and consider on the floor. I want to mention specifically the staff director and the clerk of the Committee on Appropriations, Jim Dyer; the full committee staff just across the hall from here, John Blazey, Dale Oak, Therese McAuliffe and John Scofield, and the others who work in the front office, Diann Kane, Sandy Farrow, John Howard and Jane Porter. Martin Delgado also had a big part of this supplemental on agricultural issues. Rich Efford was very heavily involved and responsible for much of the success in our transportation areas. Debbie Weatherly worked on Interior, and Kevin Cook on Energy and Water. Others who have been important to the emergency supplemental, include Kevin Roper on Defense; Tim Peterson on VA-HUD; Carol Murphy on military construction and whose bill became the vehicle for the hurricane supplemental. And Michelle Mrdeza on homeland security, Mike Ringler on commerce and justice, John Shank on foreign operations, and Craig Higgins on Labor-HHS, all have been important on the supplemental. Additionally, all of the staff of our subcommittees and Rob Nabors, who is the chief clerk for the gentleman from Wisconsin (Mr. Obey), and I am sure that the gentleman from Wisconsin (Mr. Obey) will supply the list of all of his staff have been important to this work. We would like to recognize all of them because they have done a really great job. This is a good bill. After we vote on this Homeland Security bill, and when we vote on the Military Construction bill and the hurricane supplemental, I hope that then everyone will leave here in a relaxed mood and have a very safe journey home to do whatever it is they are going to do to campaign for reelection. I thank all of you for the support that you have given us. I really appreciate it.

Mr. YOUNG of Florida

Mr. YOUNG of Florida. Mr. Chairman, it is a great opportunity to engage in this very important discussion. Because I intended to be part of this debate this evening, I looked through the Constitution again this afternoon, as I do from time to time, and I learned once again that the Constitution says that the Congress shall raise the armies and the navies and provide for the Nation's security. The Members of this Congress that have put together H.R. 10 have spent their careers in Congress working on issues of importance to our Nation's security and in the creation of the most effective military and security operation in the entire world. We have the best military in the entire world, and the very people who are responsible for making that happen also are the creators of H.R. 10. I am proud to have been a part of that work, and they worked hard, many days and many nights. While I am speaking of the Constitution, the Menendez amendment, in my opinion, yields the constitutional requirement of the Congress, yields it, to the 9/11 Commission. The 9/11 Commission, they worked hard, but I checked the Constitution. I did not find anything in the Constitution about the 9/11 Commission. One of the issues that concerns me seriously in the Menendez amendment is the decision to have the authorizers also be the appropriators. The chairman of the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence said he does not want that, and there is a good reason for that. This has been tried before where authorizers would actually be the appropriators. The reason we have the two different organizations is simply this. The authorizers set the policy. They determine what will be the policy of the United States of America and whatever the issue is. The appropriators deal with the budgetary aspects of that work. We know that the budgetary, the appropriations business must be completed or the agencies shut down. The policy workers can go on and on for months, even years beyond their allotted time and still not have an adverse affect on the operation of this great Nation. What concerns me is that if we give the authorizing committees also appropriating responsibilities they will, of necessity, spend most of their time dealing with the appropriations, the budgetary aspects, and leaving the policy-making to wan. This is not a good idea to pass this Menendez amendment, and I realize he worked hard and I realize that he is promoting basically what the 9/11 Commission has recommended. But we were elected to function under the Constitution, to provide for the security of this Nation. I would say to my colleagues, as much respect as I have for the members of the 9/11 Commission and as hard as they worked to come up with some ideas that were actually pretty good, they are not the depository of all wisdom when it comes to providing for the security of our Nation. As I said, those who were involved in the creation of H.R. 10 have spent a career in this Congress creating and providing for the most effective, the best military operation in the entire world, the best that the world has ever seen. So I ask for a ``no'' vote on the Menendez amendment and a strong ``yes'' vote for H.R. 10.

Mr. YOUNG of Florida

Mr. YOUNG of Florida. Mr. Chairman, I yield 5 minutes to the gentleman from Wisconsin (Mr. Obey).

Mr. YOUNG of Florida. Mr. Chairman, I reserve the balance of my time.

Mr. YOUNG of Florida. Mr. Chairman, I yield myself the balance of the time. Mr. Chairman, I want to congratulate the gentleman from Texas and those of his colleagues, our colleagues, who have spoken in favor of this amendment. I will tell my colleagues that, as the chairman of the Committee on Appropriations, the committee that must pass legislation, the only bills that have to pass in this place are appropriations bills. Other bills can go by for years, and as my colleagues know, many of them do. We have been working on a transportation bill, not I, but others, working on a transportation bill for 3 or 4 years now and have not passed it. But these gentlemen have done a really good job in making sure that in our must-pass appropriations bills, that we pay close attention to what we are doing, that we make sure that we are able to justify whatever we are suggesting, because we know that if we do not do it right, they are going to be all over us, as they should be. So I compliment them for their effort. But tonight I have to oppose their amendment, and there are several reasons. One is, when we adopted the budget resolution, well, actually we never did; we deemed the budget resolution as approved by the House. We actually reduced the President's budget request by $2 billion. What is the significance of that? Why do I even bring this up? The President asked for a very austere budget, and I say amen to him. The House budget that we worked under was $2 billion less than that, and, Mr. Chairman, I say to my friend, the gentleman from Texas, all of the bills that we have passed are within that budget. We did not exceed the budget, except for the emergency designations dealing with things like body armor for troops in Iraq and ammunition and things of that nature. So we were starting with a very austere budget, and we stayed within that budget. The Committee on Appropriations 2\1/2\ months ago reported its final and last bill. The Committee on Appropriations worked hard and we got the bills out, we had them out. Mr. Chairman, 2\1/2\ months ago, we reported the last one. Twelve of those bills have passed. One has not passed because, as one of our distinguished colleagues said to me, it is not going on the floor because there is not enough money in it. Sort of inconsistent, wanting to hold down the budget, but then complaining that there is not enough money in it. But the problem that I have with this is that they do not take the across-the-board cut from the bill that is before the House tonight. They take the across-the-board cut from future legislation, the 2005 bills. Now, the problem with that is, none of us really know how much those 2005 bills are going to appropriate. Why is that? Because despite the fact that we have done our job in the House, as I suggested, at the other end of the Capitol, they have not, and we have no control over that. That is the price of a bicameral legislature, and I support a bicameral legislature. There are days when I wish I did not, but I do, from the standpoint of a constitutional government. But borrowing from next year's appropriation to pay for this emergency supplemental tonight to me is not conservative government. That is borrowing in the future. That is borrowing from things that we are going to need to do in fiscal year 2005, this coming year. So because of that, while, again, I applaud my colleagues for their fiscal conservatism, and probably, I would be more supportive if my job was not to make sure that all of the appropriations bills pass, but that is my job. I have to make sure that all of the appropriations bills pass, because if they do not, the government shuts down, and we do not want that to happen. I do not want that to happen on my watch, and it has not happened on my watch, and it is not going to. But anyway, for those reasons, I applaud the gentleman from Texas on this amendment and those who spoke in favor of it, but I have to ask my colleagues to vote against it and then get on with passing this very important bill, this very good bill as far as it goes. But as I have repeated myself tonight several times, it just does not go far enough. But we are going to pass this bill tonight, and then we will work on making it a better bill as we go through the process. Mr. Chairman, I yield back the balance of my time.

Mr. YOUNG of Florida. Mr. Chairman, I demand a recorded vote.

Mr. YOUNG of Florida. Mr. Chairman, I claim the time in opposition to the amendment.

Mr. YOUNG of Florida. Mr. Chairman, I thank the gentleman for yielding me this time, and I thank him very much for all the cooperation that he has shown us as we prepared this legislation for these tremendous supplementals for hurricane disaster relief. I am not going to speak in opposition to the amendment, but I want to say this. The process is disturbing. The inconsistencies in the process are disturbing. For example, I have talked often this afternoon about H.R. 5227 that does what I think needs to be done in this hurricane relief, and the additional agriculture disaster assistance that the gentleman offers in his amendment is included in H.R. 5227. But the process would not allow me, as chairman of the committee, to include this additional agriculture disaster funding in H.R. 5212. That inconsistency, to me, is very disturbing and it is not acceptable. I am not going to argue against the amendment because I tried to include similar funding myself. The gentleman from Texas, I do not know who he knows or what he knows, but he got a chance to do it. But the chairman of the committee could not. The process is not acceptable.

Mr. YOUNG of Florida. Mr. Chairman, I reserve the balance of my time.

Mr. YOUNG of Florida. Mr. Chairman, I yield 1\1/2\ minutes to the distinguished gentleman from Florida (Mr. Mica) for the purpose of a colloquy.

Mr. YOUNG of Florida. Mr. Chairman, will the gentleman yield?

Mr. YOUNG of Florida. Mr. Chairman, might I inquire as to how much time is remaining on either side?

Mr. YOUNG of Florida. Mr. Chairman, last week I had the privilege of accepting an invitation from the gentleman from Florida (Mr. Miller) to visit his district where the naval air station at Pensacola is located and was devastated. I am happy to yield 3 minutes to the gentleman from Florida (Mr. Miller) who has done a tremendous job in helping his people recover from this hurricane.

Mr. YOUNG of Florida. Mr. Chairman, I yield back the balance of my time.

Mr. YOUNG of Florida. Mr. Chairman, I yield 3 minutes to the gentleman from Florida (Mr. Weldon), the very distinguished member of the Committee on Appropriations from Florida's east coast and Cape Canaveral and the Space Center.

Mr. YOUNG of Florida. Mr. Chairman, I yield myself the balance of my time. Mr. Chairman, I am going to repeat just briefly what I said earlier, that H.R. 5212, which is the bill we have under consideration at this moment, is a good bill as far as it goes. But it does not go far enough. It is about $1.6 billion short, and that $1.6 billion we added in H.R. 5227. For those who were concerned about spending the extra money, we have offset it. In our bill, H.R. 5227, we offset that $1.6 billion, so there is no real added cost. I want a good vote on H.R. 5212. I want to get this bill into conference as soon as we can. We need to finish this job before we leave here for the election break. I do not want the people in Florida to have to wait 3 or 4 weeks before this financial recovery comes to them. I would point out again that FEMA has advised me that by Friday night this week, they will be pretty much out of money. We cannot let that happen. I wanted to just take a minute and explain what we think should be in this bill that is not, and what is in H.R. 5227. For agriculture, we add $509 million for additional assistance for agriculture and rural areas. For highways and airports, we add $750 million for the Federal Highway Administration's emergency relief program. Highways, believe it or not, have been seriously damaged and destroyed by the hurricanes that visited Florida. For NASA, we add $59 million to repair the damage at the Kennedy Space Center, but also to harden the existing facilities to prevent further damage from hurricanes. For the Army Corps of Engineers, this is very important to a lot of Members, we add $147 million to make emergency repairs to waterways and shore areas, including dredging harbors and inlets that have been filled in by the erosion of the storm and shore protection projects. For National parks and wildlife refuges, we add $108 million to repair those facilities, to clear debris from the national parks, forests and wildlife refuges based on the most recent estimates from the Federal agencies. We add $7 million to adequately reflect the most current damages to the United States Coast Guard and their facilities. As I said earlier, there is nothing political in this bill. These are not Member projects. These are not political projects. These are things that were damaged in disastrous hurricanes, that need to be fixed. H.R. 5227 fixes them; H.R. 5212 does not. Again, H.R. 5212 is a good bill as far as it goes and it does maintain most of the promises that the President made to Florida. We are going to make sure and I am going to do everything possible to make sure that everything the President promised is going to be delivered by the Congress. I would not do less. I would do everything possible to see the additional hurricane relief, recovery, and disaster funds that I have included in H.R. 5227, become part of the appropriations process, and part of the appropriations bill. And let us get on with rebuilding a great State, a great State where every section of that State was affected by one or more of those disastrous hurricanes. Mr. Chairman, I thank you very much for the way you have conducted the consideration of this bill today and the discussion and debate on the floor. I look forward to further discussion on two amendments that I know that the rule has made in order. But, all in all, I want to pass H.R. 5212 with the hope and expectation that H.R. 5227 will come along behind it, which is the better bill. But H.R. 5212 is a good bill as far as it goes.

Mr. YOUNG of Florida. Mr. Chairman, I will say to the gentleman that, yes, this is my understanding.

Mr. YOUNG of Florida

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 and include extraneous material on H.R. 5212 and that I may include tabular material on the same.