C. Young

Mr. YOUNG of Florida

Mr. YOUNG of Florida. Mr. Chairman, I look forward to working with the gentleman from New York (Mr. Sweeney) as we move towards a final resolution of this issue, and will certainly work to clarify the report language during conference as events dictate.

Mr. YOUNG of Florida

Mr. YOUNG of Florida. Mr. Speaker, my wife Beverly and I spend considerable time visiting with injured soldiers, sailors, marines, airmen, and coasties at the Walter Reed Army Medical Center and the National Naval Medical Center in Bethesda. Our goal is to provide comfort and support to the service members and their families. This is a project Beverly has led for many years, long before the inception of Operations Enduring Freedom and Iraqi Freedom. Throughout the years, we have helped solve many problems large and small that involved patient care, benefits, and tangled bureaucracy. Recently, though, we learned of a problem that I consider a serious affront to those injured in battle and training. Upon being discharged from the hospital, our enlisted personnel and officers are served with a bill to pay for their ``subsistence'' while in the hospital. The current daily rate for these charges is $8.10. We learned about this from our visits with Staff Sergeant William L. Murwin, who spent 26 days in the hospital recovering from injuries incurred in Iraq. Sergeant Murwin is a reservist in the Marine Corps who was injured when a 10-year-old Iraqi dropped a grenade in the HUMVEE he was driving. As a result of the explosion, Sergeant Murwin is a partial amputee, having lost a large part of his foot. Upon his discharge July 18th to return home to Nevada and his job as a sheriff's deputy, Sergeant Murwin was handed a bill from the hospital for $210.60 to pay for his food and subsistence. Beverly and I paid this bill for Sergeant Murwin because we consider it an injustice to ask those who have served us so courageously in Afghanistan and Iraq to pay for their food while hospitalized. Legislation I am introducing today would amend current law to prohibit service members injured in combat or training from being billed for the food while hospitalized. Congress initially initiated the system of charging for subsistence costs for officers who were hospitalized in 1958 under Public Law 85-861. The 97th Congress amended this law in 1981 with Public Law 97-22 to include enlisted service members. Mr. Speaker, this is a long overdue correction to our statutes. No one wants to see these men and women have to write a check for their hospital stay, least of all the staff of our nation's military hospitals. We should be honoring and thanking those in uniform for their service to the cause of peace and freedom, not billing them for their food. And we should be doing all we can to help them recover from their injuries, not ask them to write a check to the U.S. Government. It is my hope that my colleagues in the House will join me in sponsoring this legislation and in urging the Committees with jurisdiction to expedite its enactment as a fitting tribute to all those who serve so valiantly and unfortunately have returned home injured, missing limbs, and in many cases being permanently disabled. It is the least we can do for our nation's keepers of peace and defenders of freedom.

Mr. YOUNG of Florida

Mr. YOUNG of Florida. Mr. Speaker, let me suggest to the chairman of the Committee on the Budget that our process on appropriations was so fouled up last year by some insistent demands of certain Members that, yes, we had to do 11 of the 13 bills in February of this year. If the Committee on Appropriations would have been permitted to do our work like we have done this year, by the way, we would not have had those kinds of problems where we had to make adjustments in order to cover the balance of the 2003 issues. And I would suggest that what was done was done in agreement with the leadership, it was done in agreement with the President of the United States; and I make no excuse for it. Mr. Speaker, I yield such time as he may consume to the gentleman from Iowa (Mr. Nussle).

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

Mr. YOUNG of Florida. Mr. Speaker, I ask unanimous consent that the question of adopting the Toomey amendment to H.R. 2859 may be subject to postponement as though under clause 8 of rule XX.

Mr. YOUNG of Florida. Mr. Speaker, pursuant to House Resolution 339, I call up the bill (H.R. 2859) making emergency supplemental appropriations for the fiscal year ending September 30, 2003, and ask for its immediate consideration in the House.

Mr. YOUNG of Florida. Mr. Speaker, I yield the balance of my time to the gentleman from Virginia (Mr. Wolf).

Mr. YOUNG of Florida. Mr. Speaker, I hope the gentleman did not misunderstand my comments. I agree, the gentleman has, as chairman, done more than previous budget chairmen to recognize the problem with mandatory versus discretionary; and I compliment the gentleman for that. My comment relative to and in response to the question of the gentleman from Kentucky (Mr. Rogers) about the two-thirds, one-third is a fact. But again, that was not to be a criticism of the chairman of the Committee on the Budget, because I know that you and I have talked, and I know that you understand totally and you agree that if we cannot control mandatory, we are never going to control discretionary.

Mr. YOUNG of Florida. Mr. Speaker, I yield 1 minute to the gentleman from Iowa and ask him to yield to me.

Mr. YOUNG of Florida. Mr. Speaker, I will yield after I yield to the gentleman from Wisconsin (Mr. Obey.) Mr. Speaker, I yield 3 minutes to the gentleman from Wisconsin (Mr. Obey).

Mr. YOUNG of Florida. Mr. Speaker, I have not found much success in the proper committee's dealing with that.

Mr. YOUNG of Florida. Mr. Speaker, I yield 4 minutes to the gentleman from Oregon (Mr. Walden).

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

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

Mr. YOUNG of Florida. Mr. Speaker, first let me explain that I agree with everything the gentleman is saying. And I would tell him that just last week when the Committee on Appropriations reported the first supplemental for this particular season, it included a substantial amount of money for fighting fires.

Mr. YOUNG of Florida. Mr. Speaker, I understand the gentleman's concern. I do not necessarily agree with it, but I understand it. Mr. Speaker, I reserve the balance of my time.

Mr. YOUNG of Florida. Mr. Speaker, I yield such time as he may consume to the gentleman from Mississippi (Mr. Wicker). (Mr. WICKER asked and was given permission to revise and extend his remarks.)

Mr. YOUNG of Florida. Mr. Speaker, I claim the time in opposition.

Mr. YOUNG of Florida. Mr. Speaker, I yield 2 minutes to the gentleman from Tennessee (Mr. Wamp), a very important member of the Committee on Appropriations. (Mr. WAMP asked and was given permission to revise and extend remarks.)

Mr. YOUNG of Florida. Absolutely.

Mr. YOUNG of Florida. Mr. Speaker, I yield myself 2\1/2\ minutes. Mr. Speaker, the issue of February's bill, first of all, that was not our fault. We were not permitted to bring the bills in the regular period of time for fiscal year 2003. That was not our fault. The fact that the numbers were different in February, understand that in February almost half of the fiscal year was gone, and there was not any use funding the early part of the fiscal year because it was already over with. It is easy for the budget resolution to make assumptions. They can assume that you can find $7 billion, for example, in the plug that was in this 2004 budget resolution. The Committee on Appropriations has to be real. What we write in our bills becomes law. It has to be real. It has to be realistic. That is what we do. We cannot satisfy everybody. I want to compliment my friend from Pennsylvania for keeping our feet to the fire on spending. He does a really good job. And we try to balance out those who want to spend more and those who want to spend less, just to make sure that we do a responsible job in funding the government and funding essential operations. So I compliment the gentleman. Sometimes I agree with him, and sometimes I do not. In this case, I must disagree with him. I do so because his amendment would cut money from the FBI, Drug Enforcement Agency, technology for State and local enforcement. It would cut for embassy security, it would cut NIH, Centers for Disease Control, Head Start, special education grants, grants for disadvantaged students. Cuts would also deal with HIV-AIDS and child survival, world hunger programs, aid to Israel, and the list is very long. Remember, there are only 2 months left in this fiscal year. If this was across-the-board for the whole 12 months, it might not be so bad, but this is only for 2 months left in the fiscal yield.

Mr. YOUNG of Florida

Mr. YOUNG of Florida. Mr. Speaker, I ask unanimous consent that all Members may have 5 legislative days in which to revise and extend their remarks on H.R. 2859 and that I may include tabular and extraneous material.

Mr. YOUNG of Florida

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

Mr. YOUNG of Florida. I thank the gentleman for yielding, and I want to confirm what the gentleman has said. I recall yesterday the dialogue between the minority whip and the majority leader that if we work things out that Members could probably consider leaving here about 5 o'clock. And I know that, if we continue to do everything that is on this unanimous consent list, that is just not going to happen. So Members need to be aware that the 5 o'clock suggestion that was made yesterday may not work if we do all of this.

Mr. YOUNG of Florida

Mr. YOUNG of Florida. Mr. Speaker, I ask unanimous consent that the Committee on Appropriations have until midnight, July 30, 2003, to file a privileged report, making appropriations for the Departments of Transportation and Treasury, and independent agencies for the fiscal year ending September 30, 2004, and for other purposes.