C. Young

Mr. YOUNG of Florida

Mr. YOUNG of Florida. Mr. Chairman, I just rise in strong support of this bill and to compliment the chairman of the subcommittee, the gentleman from California (Mr. Lewis) and the ranking member, the gentleman from Pennsylvania (Mr. Murtha). Mr. Chairman, when they mentioned the ability of the staff, they are exactly right. This bill, while it is nearly half of all discretionary spending, is not half of all government spending, because mandatories take up two-thirds of the spending. But this bill is half of the discretionary spending, and this subcommittee does a tremendous job in allocating it in a proper way. I am just in very strong support of this, and I compliment the leadership of the subcommittee.

Mr. YOUNG of Florida

Mr. YOUNG of Florida. Mr. Chairman, I thank the gentleman for yielding me this time, and I rise for two purposes: one, to express strong support for the bill and to compliment Chairman Knollenberg and Ranking Member Edwards for producing as good a bill as they could with what they had to work with. We have heard today as we heard during the Homeland Security appropriations bill earlier and I predict, Mr. Chairman, we will hear it from the other 11 appropriations bills, that they need more money, that they did not get enough money; that, as in this particular case, the bill is below the President's budget request. Mr. Chairman, the budget resolution that this committee is required to deal with was below the President's budget request. Somebody tell me how we can go above the President's budget request with a budget resolution that is below the President's budget request. That would take a little magic. The gentleman from Wisconsin and I have sat together many times trying to figure out that magic. We have not found the right magic wand yet. But the committees and the subcommittees are doing the best they can with what they have to work with, and they are producing good bills. The second part of my interest today is to say to our colleagues that, although there was a substantial delay in getting past some budgetary issues that were above the jurisdiction of the Committee on Appropriations, that 2 weeks ago when those issues were finally settled, your Committee on Appropriations has responded well. The Homeland Security bill was marked up, sent to the House, and it has gone on to the Senate. The military construction bill has been marked up, sent to the House and will go to the Senate today. The defense appropriations bill has been marked up. The labor, health and human services bill has been marked up. The interior appropriations bill has been marked up. The agriculture appropriations bill has been marked up, and the legislative branch bill has been marked up. So in that 2-week period, your committee has produced seven of the 13 bills. That is in addition to having completed 11 of last year's bills during this calendar year and one major wartime supplemental. I am very proud of the Committee on Appropriations on both sides. I am proud of the subcommittees and their leadership. But you cannot have more money to spend than the budget resolution provides, whether it is with the President's number, above the President's number, or below the President's number. We are given that number, and that is what we have to deal with.

Mr. YOUNG of Florida

Mr. YOUNG of Florida. Mr. Chairman, I appreciate the gentleman yielding time. I rise in strong support of the bill. Mr. Chairman, as you know, when we made the recommendation to reorganize the Committee on Appropriations, it was a major reorganization, the biggest reorganization in many, many years, and it was the right thing to do. When I selected the gentleman from Kentucky (Chairman Rogers) to chair this subcommittee, it was the right choice. He has done a tremendous job in understanding the issues and in bringing together all of the various agencies that are involved in homeland security. This is a good bill. There are some who will say that it is too much spending, and others who will say that it is not enough. You are going to hear that on all 13 appropriations bills. I tend to think we are just about in the right place on all of the bills. Today we are focused on homeland security. On Friday we will consider the Military Construction appropriations bill. We have already marked up in addition to Homeland Security and Military Construction, after about a 4-week delay in getting approval on the budgetary levels, the Interior, Agriculture, Labor-HHS, Legislative and Defense appropriations bills in subcommittee. Tomorrow we will mark up the Labor-HHS bill, the Interior bill, and the Agriculture appropriations bill in the full committee. On Thursday we will mark up the Defense appropriations bill and the Legislative Branch appropriations bill in full committee. So for the Members' interested in having some idea of our schedule, we plan to have those bills through the House before the August recess. The committee, once we were freed up from the hold that we had due to budgetary issues, has moved quickly and in a very responsible way, and I am happy to report, Mr. Chairman, that in addition to this good bill we are considering today, the Military Construction bill, which is also a good bill, will be considered on Friday and the Committee on Appropriations is well underway with the eleven other bills and has a very aggressive schedule.

Mr. YOUNG of Florida. Mr. Chairman, I move to strike the last word. Mr. Chairman, I suggest to the gentleman that his comments are very well taken and when the administration makes the request, which we do anticipate, for FEMA and other issues, that the Committee on Appropriations will move on it quickly and very likely apply it to the very next appropriations bill that is in the process and ready to be considered by the House.

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

Mr. YOUNG of Florida

Mr. YOUNG of Florida. Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I might consume. I want to begin, Mr. Speaker, by thanking the Speaker for all of the tremendous effort that he put into this process to let us get to where we are today and also to the gentleman from Wisconsin (Mr. Obey) and especially to the gentleman from Maryland (Mr. Hoyer), who played an important role in the process of getting us where we are. Mr. Speaker, we visited with the President just a little over 2 weeks ago, and we promised the President that we would deal with his supplemental request to, number one, pay for the war that has already taken place, provide additional money to fight the Iraqi Freedom operation. In just about three weeks, we have done that, Mr. Speaker. We have produced the legislation in the House. Our colleagues in the Senate produced a similar bill, although they added some extraneous material, most of which we were able to take out in conference, but Mr. Speaker, this conference report, I have been on this Committee on Appropriations for a long, long time. This is probably the cleanest supplemental conference report that this House has seen, and so I feel pretty good about the product that we have, and we did what the President asked. He asked for certain amounts of money for the war. He asked for certain amounts of money for homeland defense. He asked for certain amounts of money to deal with our colleagues in the coalition, and Mr. Speaker, we provided that, while at the same time preserving some of the constitutional responsibility of the Congress to be involved in the appropriation and to have some knowledge of how the appropriation was going to be used. So, all in all, I think we have a great product here and over 400 Members voted for bill when it went through the House early on so I think that we can move this bill expeditiously, get it to the President, and then, Mr. Speaker, begin our work on the 13 regular 2004 appropriations bill. [GRAPHIC] [TIFF OMITTED] TH12AP03.001 [GRAPHIC] [TIFF OMITTED] TH12AP03.002 [GRAPHIC] [TIFF OMITTED] TH12AP03.003 [GRAPHIC] [TIFF OMITTED] TH12AP03.004 [GRAPHIC] [TIFF OMITTED] TH12AP03.005 [GRAPHIC] [TIFF OMITTED] TH12AP03.006 [GRAPHIC] [TIFF OMITTED] TH12AP03.007 [GRAPHIC] [TIFF OMITTED] TH12AP03.008 [GRAPHIC] [TIFF OMITTED] TH12AP03.009 [GRAPHIC] [TIFF OMITTED] TH12AP03.010 [GRAPHIC] [TIFF OMITTED] TH12AP03.011 [GRAPHIC] [TIFF OMITTED] TH12AP03.012 [GRAPHIC] [TIFF OMITTED] TH12AP03.013 [GRAPHIC] [TIFF OMITTED] TH12AP03.014 [GRAPHIC] [TIFF OMITTED] TH12AP03.015 Mr. Speaker, I reserve the balance of my time.

Mr. YOUNG of Florida. Mr. Speaker, pursuant to the previous order of the House, I call up the conference report on the bill (H.R. 1559) making emergency wartime supplemental appropriations for the fiscal year ending September 30, 2003, and for other purposes.

Mr. YOUNG of Florida. Mr. Speaker, I yield such time as he may consume to the gentleman from Texas (Mr. DeLay), the very distinguished majority leader, and I thank him for scheduling this bill for consideration today.

Mr. YOUNG of Florida. Mr. Speaker, I would respond to the gentleman that I have one member of the leadership, a subcommittee chairman would like a brief period, and then I would be prepared to make a final closing statement and yield back the time.

Mr. YOUNG of Florida. Yes.

Mr. YOUNG of Florida. Mr. Speaker, I yield myself the balance of my time. Mr. Speaker, since September 11 and our war against terrorism and the injuries to our troops coming from Afghanistan, my wife and I, and actually my wife more than I, have been regular visitors to the Army Hospital at Walter Reed and to the Naval Hospital in Bethesda to provide gifts, provide some comfort, and to do what they need and their families need in a time of real crisis in their life. It brings tears to my eyes when I see these young kids with a leg or arm missing. One soldier was blinded. There are a lot of them out there now, sailors, soldiers, Marines, and even some Air Force folks. It is a sad time. But the sadness goes away when I talk to these kids. They are unbelievable. They are laying there with their whole life changed for the balance of their life. They love this country. They believe in the defense of this country, and they want to get back to the action, although many of them will not be able to because of their injuries. But throughout the many, many conversations that we have through the day or on the weekends, one thing comes to the fore: How does my country feel about me? Am I going to come back and be ridiculed like some of my colleagues were from Vietnam? Mr. Speaker, they worry about how does America feel about them. We do our best to convince them that America loves them, America appreciates them. I think a strong vote on passage of this bill is a strong message to those injured in our hospitals today and those still on the battlefield today risking their lives, a strong message to them, young Americans, young soldiers, your country loves you and respects you and appreciates you. Mr. Speaker, 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 on the conference report accompanying H.R. 1559 and that I may include tabular and extraneous material.

Mr. YOUNG of Florida

Mr. YOUNG of Florida. Mr. Speaker, I ask unanimous consent that it shall be in order at any time to consider the conference report to accompany H.R. 1559; all points of order against the conference report and against its consideration are waived; the conference report shall be considered as read; and clause 10 of rule XX shall not apply to the question of adoption of the conference report.

Mr. YOUNG of Florida

Mr. YOUNG of Florida. Madam Speaker, I apologize to the gentleman. I guess I did not understand exactly. But that is fine with me. No problem whatsoever.

Mr. YOUNG of Florida. Madam Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume. I am sorry. Did the gentlewoman wish to go? I will always yield to the gentlewoman from California.

Mr. YOUNG of Florida. Madam Speaker, I ask unanimous consent to take from the Speaker's table the bill (H.R. 1559) making emergency wartime supplemental appropriations for the fiscal year ending September 30, 2003, 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. Madam Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume. Madam Speaker, I am not really opposed to what the gentleman is suggesting here. The Committee on Appropriations did add $3.2 billion to the wartime supplemental to deal with airline issues and to be helpful to the airline industry. So there is plenty of money to handle this issue, but I am going to vote against it because of the problems it could cause as we go to conference. We have a tight schedule. The committees on both sides of the aisle have worked extremely well. Just a few days after receiving the President's request, the Committee on Appropriations reported the bill to the House. As Members know, last Thursday we passed this bill with an overwhelming vote in the House. However, there are some significant differences between our bill and the bill presented by the other body. I just have the feeling this is going to be a fairly difficult conference because, while the House kept the bill very clean and close to what the President requested, to fight the war and provide for homeland security and to support those of our coalition who are helping us in this war effort, the other body, frankly, added quite a few things that were extraneous to the wartime issue; and that is going to make the conference a little difficult. I want to get this conference completed. Leadership has advised me, as well as most of the Members, that we are not going to take our Easter district work period recess until this bill has left the Congress and has gone to the President since it is important to what the President is doing in Iraq. I will vote against this motion. I want to again emphasize we need to move this bill quickly. If the conference gets tied up for more than 2 days, we will not get this bill to the floor in time for the House to take its usual Easter recess. In addition, I am opposed to motions to instruct in general. I have no objection to what the gentleman wants to do, but it is just procedural for me. I think it could complicate the conference on this very important wartime supplemental. Madam Speaker, I yield back the balance of my time.

Mr. YOUNG of Florida

Mr. YOUNG of Florida. Madam Speaker, I ask unanimous consent that all Members may have 5 legislative days within which to revise and extend their remarks on the motion to go to conference on H.R. 1559, making emergency wartime supplemental appropriations for the fiscal year ending September 30, 2003, and for other purposes, and that I may include tabular and extraneous material.

Mr. YOUNG of Florida

Mr. YOUNG of Florida. Mr. Chairman, I yield myself such time as I may consume. Mr. Chairman, today H.R. 1559 is before the Committee of the Whole House on the State of the Union to pay for the war in Iraq, the liberation of the people of Iraq, the destruction of a regime that threatens its own people, that persecutes its own people, that threatens its neighbors with weapons of mass destruction, that is a vicious, violent regime. We are at war today, and I want to say that American people can be, and I am sure they are, tremendously proud of the members of our Armed Forces. I was paying tribute to the men and women who serve in our Armed Forces for their tremendous dedication and their courage and their commitment and their valor and the tremendous way in which they are carrying out their mission. All Americans are proud of what these young Americans are doing. The Committee on Appropriations reported the bill with a recorded vote and every Member in the Committee voted yes: number one, to bring the bill to the floor; number two, to show our complete support of our American Armed Forces. And I am very proud of that. I want to thank the gentleman from Wisconsin (Mr. Obey), and I wanted to thank the members of both parties, on both sides of the political aisle on the Committee on Appropriations who worked together to produce this product that is very similar, Mr. Chairman, to what the President of the United States, the Commander in Chief, asked us to do. The major part of the appropriations provided in this bill are for the Department of Defense, and the military services, to pay for much of the activities that have already taken place and to provide additional funding to complete this effort to rid the world of a regime as the one we have seen for the last 20 years headed by Saddam Hussein. Mr. Chairman, I am going to reserve the balance of my time at this point because I want the subcommittee chairmen who worked so hard to bring this package together to use a considerable amount of the time to explain the part of the bill on which they worked. Mr. Chairman, I include for the Record the following tabular and extraneous material: [GRAPHIC] [TIFF OMITTED] TH03AP03.001 [GRAPHIC] [TIFF OMITTED] TH03AP03.002 [GRAPHIC] [TIFF OMITTED] TH03AP03.003 [GRAPHIC] [TIFF OMITTED] TH03AP03.004 [GRAPHIC] [TIFF OMITTED] TH03AP03.005 Mr. Chairman, I reserve the balance of my time.

Mr. YOUNG of Florida. Mr. Chairman, I yield myself 1 minute. I do so to again thank the gentleman from Wisconsin (Mr. Obey) for the cooperation that we enjoyed as we prepared this bill. And this is a clean bill, by the way. And I compliment the members of the House. A lot of Members came to us and asked for consideration to do something that they felt was important to do in this supplemental, and we explained that it was a war supplemental and explained why we were not going to be able to accept Member projects. There are no Member projects in this bill. This is a clean bill. It tracks what the President asked for, and I think the House can be very proud of that. There are several major parts of the bill: the national defense part dealing with the war, the very important part of the bill dealing with homeland security, and another part of the bill that deals with support for our coalition partners. So we are going to explain those sections of the bill separately. The largest part of the bill goes to the war, of course, and for national defense and for our troops to provide what they need to carry out their important mission. Mr. Chairman, to present that part of the bill, I yield 5 minutes to the gentleman from California (Mr. Lewis), the very distinguished chairman of the Committee on Appropriations' Subcommittee on Defense, who does a tremendous job in presenting and providing information that we need to put these bills together.

Mr. YOUNG of Florida. Mr. Chairman, I yield myself 1 minute. I do so to say that on September 11, 2001, America's world changed. As we entered the 21st century, everything changed. Our citizens came under attack from cowardly terrorists who killed thousands of innocent, and I repeat, innocent civilians. That war against terrorism has been ongoing very effectively. Early this year, I recommended to the Committee on Appropriations a reorganizational structure that would create a subcommittee which would have the responsibility of dealing specifically with the security of our homeland. I asked the gentleman from Kentucky (Mr. Rogers) if he would chair that subcommittee. He is one of the outstanding leaders of our Committee on Appropriations, and he agreed to do that. They are well under way with their work. Mr. Chairman, I yield 6 minutes to the gentleman from Kentucky (Mr. Rogers), the chairman of that very important Subcommittee on Homeland Security.

Mr. YOUNG of Florida

Mr. YOUNG of Florida. Mr. Chairman, I move to strike the last word for the purpose of a colloquy.

Mr. YOUNG of Florida. Mr. Chairman, I yield 3 minutes to the gentleman from Connecticut (Mr. Shays).

Mr. YOUNG of Florida. Mr. Chairman, I yield the balance of my time to the gentleman from New York (Mr. Walsh).

Mr. YOUNG of Florida. Mr. Chairman, I could not hear the unanimous consent request.