C. Young

Mr. YOUNG of Florida

Mr. YOUNG of Florida. Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume. I do so to present the emergency supplemental appropriations bill, the second supplemental for fiscal year 2003. We have had considerable debate already on the bill as we debated the rule. This is a very simple, straightforward emergency bill that includes $983.6 million for the Disaster Relief Fund, which is now a part of the Department of Homeland Security. We know that there are Members that have other interests, and the administration has other interests. We had already reported from the Committee on Appropriations a supplemental that was more far reaching than this, but it appears the proper thing to do now is to just present this emergency supplemental strictly for Disaster Relief because the Disaster Relief account has a serious problem with running out of money. I do not think we need a lot of debate on this bill. Mr. Speaker, I reserve the balance of my time.

Mr. YOUNG of Florida. Mr. Speaker, I yield myself 1 minute to remind Members that the Committee on Appropriations reported a supplemental appropriations bill that I believe is still in play that would be conferenced as part of the legislative branch bill. That bill did include the money for fighting the fires. We think that is a very important issue. We actually proposed that to the administration and they agreed. They agreed to that part of the supplemental. I hope that is still in play, and I believe that it will be; but today we are faced with the real emergency of a funding emergency for Disaster Relief account. Mr. Speaker, I yield 6 minutes to the gentleman from Kentucky (Mr. Rogers), the chairman of the Subcommittee on Homeland Security and, of course, FEMA falls into his jurisdiction.

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

Mr. YOUNG of Florida. Absolutely.

Mr. YOUNG of Florida. Mr. Speaker, I yield 1 minute to the gentleman from Washington (Mr. Dicks).

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.

Mr. YOUNG of Florida

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. Speaker, I ask unanimous consent that during consideration of H.R. 2861 in the Committee of the Whole pursuant to House Resolution 338, no amendment to the bill may be offered except: pro forma amendments by the chairman or ranking minority member of the Committee on Appropriations or their designees for the purpose of debate; an amendment by Mr. Walsh striking provisions in title III and title IV, which may be offered en bloc; Two amendments by Mr. Smith of New Jersey, each regarding medical care for veterans; an amendment by Mr. Smith of New Jersey striking section 114, which shall be debatable for 20 minutes; an amendment by Mr. Edwards regarding medical care for veterans; an amendment by Mr. Stearns regarding medical and prosthetic research; an amendment by Mr. Kirk regarding sharing agreements with the Department of Defense; an amendment by Mr. Nadler regarding the housing certificate fund, which shall be debatable for 20 minutes; an amendment by Mr. Fattah or Mr. Davis of Illinois regarding public housing, which shall be debatable for 20 minutes; an amendment by Mr. Nadler regarding housing opportunities, which shall be debatable for 20 minutes; an amendment by Mrs. Capps regarding science and technology programs on the Environmental Protection Agency; an amendment by Mr. Hastings of Florida regarding environmental programs and management; an amendment by the gentleman from Michigan (Mr. Dingell) regarding environmental programs and management; an amendment by the gentleman from Massachusetts (Mr. Markey) regarding hazardous substance Superfund, which shall be debatable for 20 minutes; an amendment by the gentleman from Texas (Mr. Hall) regarding NASA; an amendment by the gentleman from Kansas (Mr. Moran) regarding beneficiary travel; an amendment by the gentleman from Maine (Mr. Allen) regarding the Clean Air Act, which shall be debatable for 20 minutes; an amendment by the gentleman from Illinois (Mr. Manzullo) regarding the Buy America Act; an amendment by the gentleman from Vermont (Mr. Sanders) or the gentleman from Pennsylvania (Mr. Kanjorski) regarding veterans integrated service networks; an amendment by the gentleman from Massachusetts (Mr. Lynch) regarding veterans; an amendment by the gentleman from Kansas (Mr. Moore) regarding Capital Asset Realignment for Enhanced Services; an amendment by the gentleman from Hawaii (Mr. Case) regarding redesignation of Hawaiian counties; an amendment by the gentlewoman from California (Ms. Lee) or the gentlewoman from Illinois (Ms. Schakowsky) regarding homeless assistance grants, debatable for 20 minutes; an amendment by the gentleman from Washington (Mr. Inslee) or the gentleman from New York (Mr. Hinchey) regarding environmental programs and management; two amendments by the gentlewoman from Texas (Ms. Jackson-Lee) regarding NASA, each of which shall be debatable for 5 minutes; an amendment by the gentleman from New York (Mr. Bishop) regarding human testing of pesticides; an amendment by the gentleman from New York (Mr. Meeks) regarding VA clinics, which shall be debatable for 20 minutes. Each amendment may be offered only by the Member designated or a designee, shall be considered as read, shall not be subject to amendment, and shall not be subject to a demand for a division of the question in the House or in the Committee of the Whole. Except as specified, each amendment shall be debatable for 10 minutes, equally divided and controlled by the proponent and an opponent. An amendment shall be considered to fit the description stated in this request if it addresses in whole or in part the object described.

Mr. YOUNG of Florida

Mr. YOUNG of Florida. Mr. Chairman, I appreciate the gentleman's comments, and I want to compliment him for having done a tremendous job. This is not the easiest bill to pass because a lot of folks just do not like foreign aid. Period. The chairman has developed a very responsible response to the issues that are facing us around the world. He has done a really good job. I would say that the gentlewoman from New York, as a working partner, has been very much a contributor to the success of this bill. I hope that we can conclude this bill today. We will see how long it takes. But it would be nice if we could. Although the committee got off to a late start this year, we passed the ninth appropriations bill just about an hour ago, the Commerce-Justice-State Department appropriations bill. This will be the 10th bill that we have passed on the floor despite a late start. As of tomorrow morning, we will have marked up all 13 appropriations bills in the full committee and we completed 11 of last year's bills early this year, and we marked up two supplementals. So the committee has been very effective and very busy this year. This bill is the culmination of a strong effort by the gentleman from Arizona and the gentlewoman from New York to meet the responsibilities that we have in the world. I compliment them. They have done a really good job. I think that they join me in hoping that we can conclude the tenth appropritions bill before it gets too late tonight.

Mr. YOUNG of Florida

Mr. YOUNG of Florida. Mr. Speaker, I ask unanimous consent that during consideration of H.R. 2799 in the Committee of the Whole pursuant to House Resolution 326, no amendment to the bill may be offered except pro forma amendments offered by the chairman or ranking minority member of the Committee on Appropriations or their designees for the purpose of debate; the amendments printed in the Congressional Record and numbered 1 through 13; the amendments that have been placed at the desk; and two amendments offered by the gentleman from Michigan (Mr. Levin), each regarding the United States Trade Representative and labor standards; each amendment may be offered only by the Member designated, or a designee, or the Member who caused it to be printed or placed at the desk, or a designee, shall be considered as read, and shall not be subject to a demand for a division of the question in the House or in the Committee of the Whole; and I ask unanimous consent that the amendments placed at the desk be considered as read for the purpose of this unanimous consent request.

Mr. YOUNG of Florida

Mr. YOUNG of Florida. Mr. Chairman, I rise briefly to compliment the gentleman from Ohio (Chairman Hobson), along with his ranking member, for doing a really fine job. This bill could have used more money, but all of our 13 subcommittees have marked up, and each one of them has said they could have used more money. So I think we are probably on the right track. Nobody got too much, and nobody got too little. The good news is that this is a very good bill, it is very well written and it is very fair. This is the eighth appropriations bill that the House will have concluded its work on prior to the August recess. All 13 subcommittees have marked up their bills. All but two of the bills have been marked up in the full committee, and that will happen next week, as well as the second supplemental request that we received from the President. So, all in all, once we were able to begin our work, the committee has done an excellent job, and I commend all of the Members on both sides of the aisle, the staff on both sides of the aisle, for working in a very professional way. I want to thank the gentleman from Wisconsin (Mr. Obey), because he has been a partner. Although we have had disagreements on occasion, he has been exceptional to work with. Our cooperation could not be better. Mr. Chairman, we have a good product here, and I hope that we can move this bill along. Again, I congratulate the gentleman from Ohio (Chairman Hobson) and the ranking member, the gentleman from Indiana (Mr. Visclosky), for doing such a good job.

Mr. YOUNG of Florida

Mr. YOUNG of Florida. Mr. Chairman, I move to strike the last word. Mr. Chairman, I think all of the House knows that this has been a major issue for the State of Florida, for the United States of America. The Everglades is a very unique ecological system that is not equal to anywhere else in the world. It is important that we continue on the agreements that were not easy to come by; but the partnership with the State of Florida, the partnership with the Federal Government, and the partnership with the courts, we have one responsibility, to provide for the hydrological issues, the plumbing in effect, the flow of the water. The State of Florida has a responsibility for the quality of the water. We had a little setback. This might be mentioned later, a little setback when the legislature changed some of their agreement, but nevertheless I am prepared to accept this amendment and compliment the gentleman for working very hard not only to support and protect the Everglades program but to do it in such a way that Congress is definitely more involved, and I think he has done a really good job. This was not the original proposal that we had in the bill, but I think this is an improvement. I want to clarify for the record that we expect these Federal agencies to submit a joint report every year on the extent to which the State is or is not meeting all applicable State water quality standards and numeric criteria adopted for phosphorus throughout Loxahatchee National Wildlife Refuge and the Everglades National Park, as well as water quality requirements set forth in the consent decree entered in the United States v. South Florida Water Management District. The submission of this report is not an option and must be done. And, again, I compliment the gentleman. I support his amendment. We are prepared to accept the amendment for the committee.

Mr. YOUNG of Florida

Mr. YOUNG of Florida. Mr. Chairman, I thank the gentleman for yielding to me; and in the interest of time, I am not going to repeat some of the arguments. The gentleman has made a very persuasive argument, and I associate myself with those remarks. The chairman is right on target, and I just think that this would be a mischievous amendment and hope that we can defeat the amendment.

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

Mr. YOUNG of Florida

Mr. YOUNG of Florida. Mr. Speaker, I would advise the gentleman there is no problem with that.

Mr. YOUNG of Florida. Mr. Speaker, if the gentleman would yield, I think the unanimous consent indicates that it would be equally divided.

Mr. YOUNG of Florida. Mr. Speaker, I ask unanimous consent that during consideration of H.R. 2660 in the Committee of the Whole pursuant to House Resolution 312, no amendment to the bill may be offered except: Pro forma amendments offered by the chairman or ranking minority member of the Committee on Appropriations, the majority leader or the minority leader or their designees for the purpose of debate; amendments printed in the Congressional Record and numbered 3, 4, 5, and 8, each of which shall be debatable for 10 minutes; the amendment printed in the Congressional Record and numbered 6, which shall be debatable for 20 minutes; an amendment by Mr. Obey regarding overtime regulations, which shall be debatable for 30 minutes; an amendment by Mr. Obey regarding SCHIP, which shall be debatable for 10 minutes; an amendment in the nature of a substitute by Mr. Obey, which shall be debatable for 10 minutes; an amendment by Mr. Tancredo regarding school safety, which shall be debatable for 10 minutes; an amendment by Mr. Allen regarding title I of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act, which shall be debatable for 30 minutes; and an amendment by Mr. Toomey regarding National Institutes of Health grants, which shall be debatable for 20 minutes. Each such amendment may be offered only by the Member designated in this request, or a designee, or the Member who caused it to be printed, or a designee; shall be considered as read; shall not be subject to amendment; and shall not be subject to a demand for a division of the question in the House or in the Committee of the Whole. Each amendment shall be debatable only for the time specified equally divided and controlled by the proponent and an opponent. All points of order against each of the amendments shall be considered as reserved pending completion of debate thereon; and each of the amendments may be withdrawn by its proponent after debate thereon.

Mr. YOUNG of Florida

Mr. YOUNG of Florida. Mr. Chairman, I thank the gentleman from Ohio (Mr. Regula) for yielding me this time, and I want to compliment and congratulate him and the gentleman from Wisconsin (Mr. Obey), as the chairman and ranking member of the subcommittee, for doing a really good job in allocating the money that was available. As Chairman Regula has said, there is an increase in the 302(b) allocation for this bill over last year. The gentleman from Wisconsin and the gentleman from Ohio have worked extremely hard to try to balance the funding so that we meet the responsibilities in this bill. I support the bill. I think it is a good bill. I know that there are a lot of things that Members would like to do and there are a lot of other items that they would like to see funded. But there is a limitation on the amount of money. As everyone knows, we have a budget resolution that did not make our job easy, but it is still the budget resolution, like it or not. I know that there are many Members who would like to add additional money, because for the 13 appropriation bills, I have received requests from Members that totaled more than $50 billion to add over and above the allocated amount that was provided in the budget resolution. However, we cannot do all of the requests, and we have to do the best we can with what we have. I think the committee has done a really outstanding job. I have been a member of this committee for a long, long time; and I know the members of this subcommittee are diligent and very respectful of their responsibilities. One thing this bill is not: this bill is not a tax bill. I understand that my friend, the gentleman from Wisconsin (Mr. Obey), has made this case strongly and he feels very strongly about it. But the fact of the matter is that this is not a tax bill. We do not do taxes in the Committee on Appropriations. That is a Ways and Means responsibility. So I think we have worked together very well to produce this bill. I think we have worked together very well to reach an agreement on the process for this bill. I believe that sometime today we will have a unanimous consent request that will accommodate Members to have our work concluded by 5 p.m., hopefully. And again I appreciate the gentleman from Wisconsin (Mr. Obey) very much and Chairman Regula for working together on this. Now, if I can just take a minute, I want to give the Members an update on where we are in the appropriations process. As usual, we got off to a slow start because there were some budget decisions that had to be made, that should have been made prior to voting on the budget resolution; but that was not done. However, I want to report that of the 13 appropriation bills, 10 have already been marked up in subcommittee. The 11th will be marked up tomorrow. We have already marked up seven of these bills in full committee. We have already concluded in the House the Homeland bill, the Military Construction bill, the Defense bill, the Legislative bill, and today we will finish the Labor-HHS bill. So a lot of the heavy lifting has already been done. By the time we break for the August recess, if we are allowed to maintain the schedule that we have set, we will have passed 11 of the 13 appropriation bills, which is much better than we did last year because of some other budgetary problems. The remaining two bills will be out of the full committee by August recess, but there will not be time to schedule them for floor action, so we will take those up early in September. Senator Stevens has advised me that we are going to move quickly in the conferences, so we should have our work done in a reasonable timeframe. Again, I want to express my support for this bill. I want to express my appreciation for everyone who worked so hard to make this bill happen. This is not an easy bill. The defense bill is about half of the total discretionary funds. This bill is about one third of the remaining discretionary funds after defense, and so it is a big bill. The committee has done a good job, and I have tremendous respect for the committee and the subcommittee and the staff for the good job that they have done, understanding that a lot of people would like to have a lot more money, but there was only so much money to go around. Anyway, I thank the gentleman, I appreciate his yielding time to me, and I support the bill.

Mr. YOUNG of Florida

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

Mr. YOUNG of Florida. Mr. Speaker, the gentleman is exactly correct. We made a correction that was necessary; and as the gentleman from Georgia (Mr. Linder) when he presented the rule acknowledged, we agree with that. A vote for the rule not only passes the rule, but it also eliminates the matter that we were concerned about.

Mr. YOUNG of Florida

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

Mr. YOUNG of Florida. Mr. Speaker, I share the gentleman's concern about this, and we are going to fix it. It should not have happened. No Member knew about this, and I am not sure yet who was responsible for it, but we will find the person who was responsible, and they will be dealt with appropriately. That is not right. The Members should not have something snuck up on them that they were not aware of. So I share the gentleman's concern. We are going to fix it very quickly here, and we will do our very best to find out just exactly how this happened and why.

Mr. YOUNG of Florida

Mr. YOUNG of Florida. Mr. Speaker, I ask unanimous consent that any general debate in the Committee of the Whole on H.R. 2660 be limited to 3 hours, equally divided and controlled by the chairman and ranking minority member of the Committee on Appropriations.

Mr. YOUNG of Florida. If the gentleman would yield, the purpose of the unanimous consent, since the rule is basically silent on the amount of time, is to guarantee, pursuant to our agreement, 3 hours in general debate, to be divided 1\1/2\ hours on your side and 1\1/2\ hours on our side. This is the unanimous consent request that would be required to accommodate that agreement.

Mr. YOUNG of Florida. Mr. Speaker, if the gentleman will yield further, this does not address the other agreement on any time limit. We would have to propound that as well. This just guarantees that we would have 3 hours of general debate.