C. Young

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 on the conference report accompanying H.R. 3289 and that I may include tabular and extraneous material.

Mr. YOUNG of Florida

Mr. YOUNG of Florida. Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume. Mr. Speaker, I rise to explain the bill before us. It is a continuing resolution to extend the original CR until the 7th of November, 2003. This CR is basically noncontroversial. We need this CR because we have not completed all the appropriations bills in conference, although the House passed all of our appropriations bills in the summer. But we are making progress. After we do the CR today, we will be dealing with the conference report on the interior appropriations bill. Also, I have just filed the conference report on the Iraqi supplemental, which we expect to get a rule on and we expect to have on the floor some time this evening, and which we hope to conclude by tonight. The CR does include a few technical corrections to the first CR and adds a provision that codifies the term ``rate for operations'' under the CR, pursuant to OMB bulletin No. 03-05. Again, Mr. Speaker, I believe this CR is noncontroversial, and I urge the House to move this legislation to the Senate so that the government can continue to function smoothly and efficiently and so that we can continue to finish our work on the appropriations bills. Mr. Speaker, I reserve the balance of my time.

Mr. YOUNG of Florida. Mr. Speaker, pursuant to House Resolution 417, I call up the joint resolution (H.J. Res. 75) making further continuing appropriations for the fiscal year 2004, and for other purposes, and ask for its immediate consideration.

Mr. YOUNG of Florida. Mr. Speaker, I have no further requests for time, and I only have a brief closing statement. I wonder if the gentleman from Wisconsin has any additional speakers.

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

Mr. YOUNG of Florida. Mr. Speaker, I appreciate the gentleman's comments, and he is exactly right. On the Committee on Appropriations bills, the gentleman from Wisconsin (Mr. Obey) and I communicate on a regular basis. I try to make sure that the gentleman and the minority are aware of anything that we are planning. We often consult and ask them how they would deal with issues. On the appropriations process, we have a good arrangement and I think we provide a good product. We do not exclude Members. I know there are some strong feelings about a 7-day CR or a 15-day CR, and probably it would have been more realistic to go a little later into the month when I think we could conclude our bills. I know Members are anxious to adjourn, but for Members on either side who want to complain about getting done so we can get out of here, I have to remind them, that we get paid 12 months a year, and the people should expect us to work 12 months a year. And if it takes 12 months, we are going to do it. Members sign up to get their paychecks every month, and should be prepared to work. We are still not at the end of the year. We will conclude our business before then, but if someone is really anxious to get out of here, maybe they should look for different employment. Mr. Speaker, I yield back the balance of my time and ask for a yes vote on the CR.

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

Mr. YOUNG of Florida. Mr. Speaker, I yield myself the balance of my time. First, I want to needle the gentleman from Pennsylvania (Mr. Murtha) and then I am going to compliment the gentleman from Wisconsin (Mr. Obey), and then I am going to have a few comments about the issues on the CR. When the gentleman from Pennsylvania (Mr. Murtha) said in a friendly way that he was going to needle me, I want the gentleman to know that I have been needled so many times there is not much room left to put needles in, but I am prepared, willing, and able. Mr. Speaker, I want to compliment the gentleman from Wisconsin (Mr. Obey) for several reasons. The truth of the matter is that the House's part of this appropriations process has worked very well. The gentleman from Wisconsin (Mr. Obey) has been a major player in making this process work. Now, I would say we do not always agree with each other. In fact, we disagree a lot. But occasionally we agree with the gentleman from Wisconsin and we support what he wants to do. But when we do not agree, we do not agree; and we are the majority so we can outvote him. The year when the gentleman from Wisconsin (Mr. Obey) was chairman, we did not have any CRs. All 13 appropriations bills were passed by October 1, which is the beginning of the fiscal year, and I compliment the gentleman for that because that does not happen very often. In fact, in the last 16-18 years, it has only happened twice. Once was under the watch of the gentleman from Wisconsin (Mr. Obey), and he deserves a lot of credit for that. But I would also remind the gentleman that he had 82 more Democrats than Republicans, and that made his life a lot easier. Mr. Speaker, the House has been very successful this year. Let me just relate quickly what we have done in the House. The gentleman from Wisconsin (Mr. Obey) said he did not want a repeat of last year, and I say Amen to that. We do not want a repeat of last year when we could not even get our bills brought to the floor, although we had marked them up in committee. So at the beginning of this year, we completed 11 of last year's 13 appropriations bills. We completed, conferenced, and passed them, and they were signed into law. We have also completed, in the House and conference, one major supplemental. We have passed all 13 of our regular fiscal year 2004 bills. We have also passed a mini-supplemental that has been conferenced and sent to the President which has now been signed. We have filed the major Iraqi supplemental, which we will take up in the House this afternoon. So we have had a very, very busy year on the Committee on Appropriations front, here in the House of Representatives. Our work is not done yet. When we pass the Department of Interior bill today, that will be only four of the 13 bills completed. There are four more in conference: military construction, energy and water, Labor-HHS and transportation. We expect to send to conference the foreign operations bill next week. There are still four bills in the Senate waiting action by the full Senate, Commerce-State-Justice, the Veterans and HUD appropriation bill, the District of Columbia appropriation bill, and the agriculture appropriation bill. We cannot go to conference until they pass those bills. But to suggest, as one Member did, that there is hardly any action at all, this Committee on Appropriations has been pretty busy and pretty effectively busy. Another Member suggested that Democrats are excluded from our conferences. I only go to conferences on appropriations bills, but since I have had the privilege of chairing this committee, no Member of either party has been excluded from the work we are doing or from our conferences.

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 on H.J. Res. 75, and that I may include tabular and extraneous material.

Mr. YOUNG of Florida

Mr. YOUNG of Florida. Mr. Speaker, I rise first to support this conference report, but I also want to address another issue, especially to my fiscally conservative friends. They received in their offices today a publication that would appear to be coming from the Committee on Appropriations because it says Appropriations Update in the big headline. The actual author of the paper is shown in small print, which indicates that the author is the Committee on the Budget. It says that this bill exceeds by $30 million the 302(b) suballocation issued by the Committee on Appropriations. The problem is, at least I guess what it is, the Committee on the Budget has one budget resolution to pass in the House, then that resolution goes to Senate, and then the House and Senate go to conference on that one resolution. Then they bring a conference agreement back, and we barely pass the budget resolution. The Committee on Appropriations has 13 regular fiscal year bills and, this year, three supplementals. So when we start to go to conference with the other body on all these bills, we have got to have the ability to negotiate the 302(b) allocations with the other body so we end up with the same 302(b)s in the House and in the Senate for each bill. In fact, if Members are concerned about this publication that was distributed today, let me say there should be no confusion. The Interior conference report is within the 302(b) allocation that was agreed to by myself and Senator Stevens. We provided this 302(b) allocation for the conference. So, in fact, this bill is within the 302(b) allocations set for the conference, and, in fact, is below last year's level. For those who might be misled by this publication, understand our process of 302(b) allocations as we go to conference, and understand that we are within the bill's 302(b) allocation. We are not over it, despite what this report says.

Mr. YOUNG of Florida

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

Mr. YOUNG of Florida. Mr. Speaker, I yield myself the balance of my time. Mr. Speaker, it has been said that this bill is a blank check. I wish to provide for the Record at this point a table that shows that it is not a blank check, and that it is very specific in the money that it appropriates. Highlights of the War Supplemental Conference Report President's Request: $87 billion. Conference report: $87.5 billion. Iraq Relief and Reconstruction President's Request: $20.3 billion. Conference report: $18.6 billion. ------------------------------------------------------------------------ Supplemental Conference Category and Description Request Agreement ------------------------------------------------------------------------ Security and law enforcement: Police training and technical assistance 950 950 Traffic police.......................... 50 - Border Enforcement...................... 150 150 Facilities Protection Services.......... 67 67

Mr. YOUNG of Florida. Mr. Speaker, may I inquire of the Chair how much time I have remaining.

Mr. YOUNG of Florida. Mr. Speaker, I yield 3 minutes to the gentleman from Illinois (Mr. Kirk), who actually flew extremely important missions over Iraq as part of Northern Watch.

Mr. YOUNG of Florida. Mr. Speaker, I yield 2\1/2\ minutes to the distinguished gentleman from Tennessee (Mr. Wamp), a member of the committee. (Mr. WAMP asked and was given permission to revise and extend his remarks.)

Mr. YOUNG of Florida. Mr. Speaker, pursuant to House Resolution 424, I call up the conference report on the bill (H.R. 3289) making emergency supplemental appropriations for defense and for the reconstruction of Iraq and Afghanistan for the fiscal year ending September 30, 2004, and for other purposes.

Mr. YOUNG of Florida. Mr. Speaker, I yield 3 minutes to the very distinguished gentleman from California (Mr. Cunningham) who as a Naval fighter pilot became the first Ace in the war in Vietnam.

Mr. YOUNG of Florida

Mr. YOUNG of Florida. Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume. (Mr. YOUNG of Florida asked and was given permission to revise and extend his remarks.)

Mr. YOUNG of Florida. Mr. Speaker, I urge that we pass this CR and get the process moving, and I yield back the balance of my time.

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 that I may include tabular and extraneous material on the motion to go to conference on H.R. 3289.

Mr. YOUNG of Florida

Mr. YOUNG of Florida. Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume. Mr. Speaker, motions to instruct are usually a very strong tool of the minority party, and the reason I know that is because we were in the minority for a lot of years. As a matter of fact, one party controlled the House of Representatives for 40 years without a break. During that time, the minority party, our party, used a lot of motions to instruct. Most of these never passed, because the majority party has to manage and has to function and pass bills. So motions to instruct, although they are not binding, still seem to carry weight in the conference meeting. We need to move this conference quickly. After lengthy debate in the House on Wednesday, Thursday and Friday of last week, and for nearly 2 weeks in the Senate, a lot of debate on amendments took place. Some amendments were agreed to; some amendments were adopted, and some were defeated. Two of the amendments we dealt with seriously through most of the debate had to do with loans to Iraq. As we all know, the House spoke rather emphatically that loans are not the way we were going to proceed. One problem is there is no government in Iraq to whom we would make a loan. Our own laws require that there be a government established before we can make a loan to a country. But what we are dealing with primarily, is to finish the job that was started in Iraq; and, when we finish the job, that means bringing our troops home. In order to bring our troops home, we are going to have to complete what they set out to do. Saddam is gone, his regime is gone, but we cannot guarantee that another Saddam will not arise from the ashes of Baghdad if we do not help the Iraqi people establish a government, if we do not help the Iraqi people establish a health system, if we do not help the Iraqi people establish an educational system, and we are doing very well on the educational system. The health system is ongoing, and we are providing additional money in the supplemental to provide additional health systems. We need to rebuild the infrastructure, electrical generation and distribution to people of Iraq, and to create a security force, where the people themselves can own their government, control their government, and not have to worry about a dictatorial regime raising its ugly head. When that happens, we can bring our troops home. The safety of our troops and the bringing of our troops home is important to me. I do not know that this motion to instruct would actually delay the process, but it could. This should be understood, although most of the debate has been about the construction funds and the reconstruction in Iraq and Afghanistan, most of the money in the bill supports our own troops. It provides them with more adequate drinking water and potable water facilities. We have spoken strongly on several occasions, and we speak strongly again in this bill, that no American soldier should be in Iraq or any other place of hostility without body armor. In addition, having armor on the Humvees and the military vehicles that are not armored today, also needs to be done for the protection of our troops. So we need to get this country stabilized and get our troops back home so that they do not have to be deployed constantly, not only our active duty troops but our Guard and Reserves. The gentleman from Wisconsin (Mr. Obey) has put together a pretty interesting motion to instruct. I would have to tell him that I like a lot of the things he has put in there, but there is one thing that we are not going to agree to: the conferees will not agree to this loan provision. The President has spoken strongly on loans numerous times. The House has spoken strongly on it. And for those who think that the Senate is opposed to doing it like the House did, understand that the Senate already included $10 billion in their bill as a grant to the construction of Iraq and Afghanistan. And so the Senate is not opposed to doing it this way. They just have a little different arrangement. So I am going to vote against this motion to instruct primarily because of the provision dealing with loans to Iraq, which the President feels very strongly about. And in the statement of the administration's position, the director of OMB has said specifically that the President's leadership, his top leaders and advisors, would advise for a veto if that loan provision stayed in the bill. So I am going to vote against this because I am not sure that motions to instruct have ever had any influence whatsoever, as they are not binding. But for any Members on our side who feel that this is something they should vote for to have a symbolic vote, I will have no problem with that. And I am not going to ask the House to defeat this motion. I am just going to say that for the reasons that I mentioned I am going to vote against it and primarily because I am not going to agree in conference to the loan provision. I am going to support the President's position on that issue. Mr. Speaker, I reserve the balance of my time.

Mr. YOUNG of Florida. Mr. Speaker, I have no further requests for time, and I reserve the balance of my time.

Mr. YOUNG of Florida. Mr. Speaker, I yield myself the balance of my time. Mr. Speaker, as I said earlier in my opening comments, the gentleman from Wisconsin's (Mr. Obey) motion has a lot of things to feel good about. The conference on the authorization committee for the Committee on Armed Services is working on a lot of these details already that the House is supporting. We have done a number of good things for quality of life for our military. To listen to some of the speakers on the other side, you would think we had done nothing for the members of our military. That is just not true. That is a little misleading, but then we know in debate, things get a little misleading. We provided hazard pay and separation allowances and fully funded them in this bill. We have authorized travel assistance for military families, that is, continued payment of per diem for travel of family members of our military personnel who are ill or injured as a result of active duty service. Clothing allowances. We provided the Department of Defense authority to provide monetary stipends to soldiers to purchase civilian clothing to wear during their hospital stays. Meal allowances. The House has moved on three separate occasions and moved very quickly to abolish the outrageous system of soldiers in military hospitals being billed for the food that they consume while they are recovering from the wounds on the battlefield. Outrageous. The House moved quickly on three different occasions to not only repeal that law but to make it retroactive through September 11, 2001 and to provide for repayment of any of those bills that had already been collected from wounded military personnel. We are going to pay them back. The House has moved very quickly on that. And I thank the House again, because we made it retroactive here when I offered an amendment for myself and the gentleman from Wisconsin (Mr. Obey) to not only make that repeal permanent, but to actually make it retroactive until September 11. We have directed the Department of Defense to increase the availability of modern hydration systems for the soldiers in Iraq. It gets really hot there, and the soldiers need as much water hydration as they can get, and we insist on that being provided. We took the President's request; we made some changes. I think we produced an even better bill than the President requested. We have a good bill that was passed by the House after debating for 3 days, and I do not want to do anything to limit our ability to advance this important bill, and to have some flexibility in the conference. It is the same thing that they wanted when they were in the majority party, they wanted flexibility to negotiate with the other body and we do too. As I have said earlier, Mr. Speaker, I am not going to ask my side of the aisle to defeat this motion to recommit and this motion to instruct. It is nonbinding, and it has a lot of good-sounding symbolic items. I am going to vote against it myself, because I cannot agree to the provision that talks about the loan provision that the Senate included that the House defeated on two separate occasions. So I will be there to defend the position of the House and to negotiate with the other body to get the best bill that we can and one that will not be vetoed. And it has been suggested that it could be subject to a veto if that loan provision remains in the bill. So other than that, Mr. Speaker, I hope we can get about our business. We would like to get to conference quickly on this bill. We would like to be able to conclude a conference early next week and have this bill to the President as soon as possible. Mr. Speaker, I yield back the balance of my time.

Mr. YOUNG of Florida. Mr. Speaker, I ask unanimous consent to take from the Speaker's table the bill (H.R. 3289) making emergency supplemental appropriations for defense and for the reconstruction of Iraq and Afghanistan for the fiscal year ending September 30, 2004, and for other purposes, with a Senate amendment thereto, disagree to the Senate amendment, and agree to the conference asked by the Senate.

Mr. YOUNG of Florida. Mr. Speaker, I have no other speakers.