C. Young

Mr. YOUNG of Florida

Mr. YOUNG of Florida. Mr. Speaker, I rise today to recognize the people of Outback Steakhouse for their strong support of our brave troops fighting the war on terrorism. Fifteen employees from Outback restaurants flew more than 7,000 miles to Afghanistan to prepare 6,700 steaks, 30,000 shrimp, and 3,000 giant onions for our courageous men and women. The members of ``Mission Outback'' as it was called, arrived in a C-17 at the Kandahar Airport with one objective: to deliver a message of appreciation from back home in the form of deep-fried onions, Rib-Eye steaks, grilled shrimp, french fries, mixed vegetables, and cheesecake. The thousands of military men and women could not have been more excited and thankful for the delicious taste of home. This philanthropic concept was born by the CEO of Outback, Chris Sullivan, whose compassion and generosity made the steak dinner possible. Together with Central Command at MacDill Air Force Base, Outback had to coordinate the transport of thousands of pounds of food and the military clearance of fifteen people to cook in a war zone across the globe. Similar to our military missions in Afghanistan, ``Mission Outback'' was brief and on-target. The employees were in Kandahar for three days, preparing food almost the entire time. Outback Steakhouse has had a long history of providing assistance to our great nation. Most recently, the chain of Outback restaurants raised over $8.5 million for Dine-Out for America, a nation-wide fundraising event for victims of the September 11th terrorist attacks. The money went directly to the American Red Cross and its Liberty Disaster Relief Fund. Mr. Speaker, there is no question that I speak for the thousands of troops in Afghanistan in thanking the people of Outback Steakhouse for their service to the United States and I ask that Congress join me in recognizing their exceptional contributions to our men and women in uniform.

Mr. YOUNG of Florida

Mr. YOUNG of Florida. Mr. Speaker, since I have been here I have voted to give the President trade negotiating authority on every trade bill that has come to the House floor. I want the President to have that authority, and of all of the presidents that I voted to give that authority to, President Bush is on the top of my list, because I have tremendous confidence in his ability to conduct the proper negotiations for the United States. Let us face it. We do need some real negotiations with the other industrial leaders of the world. But I have a bit of a dilemma here tonight. I am looking at the Rules of the House, and this one particular rule is titled, ``Appropriations on legislative bills.'' It says, ``A bill or joint resolution carrying an appropriation may not be reported by a committee not having jurisdiction to report appropriations.'' And when I began to read through this bill, once it was available to us, I found, in an amendment to section 174 of the Workforce Investment Act, an appropriation. It is not an authorization for appropriations, but an actual appropriation of $60 million for worker assistance programs. This particularly caught my attention because when the House passed the supplemental, which was one of the most difficult conferences that I have ever taken part in, we included $300 million for this worker assistance program. But I had to take it out of the supplemental conference agreement because we were spending too much money. The problem that I am having tonight is, why is it too much money if the proper committee provides it, but it is not too much money when an authorizing committee, which does not have the jurisdiction, provides it? Money spent is money spent, whether it is mandated by an authorization bill or whether it is appropriated by the Committee on Appropriations. That is what got my attention. As I read this bill, I came up with 4 additional sections of the bill where it provides an appropriation. So while this has become an appropriations bill, the Committee on Appropriations has not had much of a chance to even take a look at it. So I am in a dilemma, because I want to vote for the President to have this negotiating authority, but I also want to preserve the integrity of the Rules of the House. I also want to preserve the integrity of the appropriations process, which is starting to break down because the budget process died on the vine. We are trying to appropriate with a budget where the House has a budget resolution that is $9 billion less than the Senate. Now, anybody that can add and subtract knows we cannot reconcile appropriations bills when one body has one number, and another body has another number. But that is where we are today, and the appropriations process is dragging because of that. So I have a real problem here. I want to do something to make sure the President has the authority, but I need to protect the integrity of the process. When this bill comes time to vote, I will decide how I am going to vote. But I think it is important that we all know that if there is a rule of the House, we ought to abide by it. The Committee on Appropriations should appropriate; the Committee on Ways and Means should deal with its jurisdictions and authorities; other authorizing committees should deal with their authorities and jurisdictions, and we should each stick to what has worked so well for so long.

Mr. YOUNG of Florida

Mr. YOUNG of Florida. Mr. Chairman, I move that the Committee do now rise.

Mr. YOUNG of Florida

Mr. YOUNG of Florida. Mr. Speaker, I would like to extend a statement of appreciation to the gentleman from Wisconsin (Mr. Obey), who has worked along with us through these last several months in trying to bring this conference report to conclusion. There were differences, as anyone might expect. We did finally work out those differences. I expect we could find some controversy here in this bill; I think we could find areas that I do not agree with and areas that the gentleman from Wisconsin (Mr. Obey) does not agree with. But, nevertheless, this is a good work product as we dealt with the many different institutions and principals who were involved in bringing this bill to conclusion. Mr. Speaker, I reserve the balance of my time.

Mr. YOUNG of Florida. Mr. Speaker, pursuant to a previous order of the House, I call up the conference report to accompany the bill (H.R. 4775) making supplemental appropriations for further recovery from and response to terrorist attacks on the United States for the fiscal year ending September 30, 2002, and for other purposes.

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. 4775, and that I may include tabular and extraneous material.

Mr. YOUNG of Florida. Mr. Speaker, I yield myself 30 seconds. Mr. Speaker, I thank the members of the conference committee and the staff who worked very diligently for a number of weeks to get us to the point where we are today to have this supplemental on the floor. Our counterparts in the other body worked with us very diligently. I suggest that they raised a number of very challenging issues. This is one of the more difficult conferences that I have been involved with in a good many years; but with the leadership of Senator Byrd and Senator Stevens, we came to a good conclusion on a good supplemental conference report. Mr. Speaker, I yield the balance of my time to the gentleman from California (Mr. Lewis), the chairman of the Subcommittee on Appropriations, since this is primarily a national defense emergency supplemental bill. (Mr. LEWIS of California asked and was given permission to revise and extend his remarks.)

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

Mr. YOUNG of Florida. Mr. Speaker, I yield 2 minutes to the very distinguished gentleman from North Carolina (Mr. Ballenger).

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

Mr. YOUNG of Florida. Mr. Speaker, I yield 2 minutes to the gentleman from Alaska (Mr. Young). (Mr. YOUNG of Alaska asked and was given permission to revise and extend his remarks and include extraneous material.)

Mr. YOUNG of Florida. Mr. Speaker, I yield 3 minutes to the distinguished gentleman from Virginia (Mr. Wolf), chairman of the Subcommittee on Commerce, Justice, State and Judiciary of the Committee on Appropriations.

Mr. YOUNG of Florida. Mr. Speaker, I would like to inquire as to the time remaining on both sides.

Mr. YOUNG of Florida. Mr. Speaker, does the gentleman know if all other Members of Congress agree with the interpretation that he has provided of the language negotiated with the administration?

Mr. YOUNG of Florida. Mr. Speaker, I want to thank the gentleman from Illinois (Mr. Hyde) for providing clarity to this rather complicated and important title of this conference report.

Mr. YOUNG of Florida. Mr. Speaker, I note that one provision of this agreed language, which appears as section 2011 of the conference report, is particularly complicated. And I would hope that the gentleman could draw on his background as the former chairman of our Committee on the Judiciary, as well as his current position as chairman of our Committee on International Relations, to explain to our colleagues the purpose of section 2011.

Mr. YOUNG of Florida. Mr. Speaker, I yield myself 3 minutes. Mr. Speaker, I want to thank the gentleman from New York for the comment that he just made. The conferees have worked really hard with the delegation from New York, including the Senate and House Members; and we have all worked together very well. This conference report continues to recognize the tremendous human losses suffered by those businesses located in the World Trade Center during the September 11 attacks, and we have included this emergency appropriation for the purpose of assisting these businesses. As stated in the joint explanatory statement of the Committee of the Conference, the conferees added $33 million to the amount provided over the initial request, and we did so expecting that that additional money would be made available specifically for helping to assist those firms located in New York City who, at the time of the terrorist attacks, suffered a disproportionate loss of their workforce and who intend to reestablish their operations in New York City. I have discussed this issue on numerous occasions with Mr. Gargano, who serves as Governor Pataki's Chairman and CEO of New York's Empire State Development Corporation. It is our understanding that in cooperation with New York City and the Lower Manhattan Development Corporation, the State of New York will ensure that these funds will be available for the intended purposes. Mr. Speaker, I reserve the balance of my time.

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

Mr. YOUNG of Florida. Mr. Speaker, I am pleased that we were joined by the gentleman from Illinois (Mr. Hyde), chairman of the Committee on International Relations, which is the committee of the House with legislative jurisdiction over the American Servicemembers' Protection Act. This legislation appears as title II of this conference report. I would like to ask the gentleman to explain the background of this legislation and describe how some of its provisions are intended to work.

Mr. YOUNG of Florida. Mr. Speaker, I yield 3 minutes to the very distinguished gentleman from Illinois (Mr. Hyde).

Mr. YOUNG of Florida. Mr. Speaker, I yield 2 minutes to the gentleman from California (Mr. Cunningham), a distinguished member of the Committee on Appropriations.

Mr. YOUNG of Florida. Mr. Speaker, I yield 4 minutes to the distinguished gentleman from Arizona (Mr. Kolbe), chairman of the Committee on Appropriations Subcommittee on Foreign Operations.

Mr. YOUNG of Florida. Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume. Mr. Speaker, I am pleased to bring to the House the conference report on the 2002 supplemental appropriations bill. This is a war-time supplemental to add further to our efforts to respond to the terrorist attacks on September 11, to provide necessary funding to pursue the al Qaeda, to secure America, and to support further recovery from the vicious attack on September 11 of last year. On May 24, almost 2 months ago, the House passed this version of this supplemental by a vote of 280 to 138. Two weeks later, the Senate passed its version of the bill. Over the past month and a half, we have worked diligently to address the differences in the House and Senate bills. The agreement being presented here to the House today is a fair bill that provides the funding that President Bush has requested as he leads our Nation against terrorism. Mr. Speaker, this is a tremendously important bill, and I would again like to state that this is a wartime supplemental appropriations bill. It provides money for our troops, our intelligence community, our safety and security, the victims of New York, and to promote U.S. foreign policy. The bill totals $28.9 billion in discretionary spending; $15 billion of that is for the Defense Department, including additional funds for the call-up of the Guard and Reserves as they were called to active duty to respond to September 11; $6.7 billion is for homeland security requirements; $2.1 billion is for foreign assistance and embassy security programs; and $5.5 billion is to further support recovery in New York. The bill also includes $1 billion in funds to avert the estimated shortfalls in the Pell Grant student aid program. It includes $417 million for veterans' medical care, $205 million for Amtrak, $400 million for programs and activities to improve general election administration in our country, and $100 million to begin to address the need to respond to floods and the tremendous fires that our Nation has experienced and is still experiencing. The committee has identified $3 billion in offsets to help pay for much of the new spending contained in the bill. These offsets are real, they are actual offsets; they are not smoke and mirrors. It is a good bill, and I hope we can get it to the President's desk as soon as possible so that our soldiers, our diplomats, our law enforcement, and our intelligence officers can have the resources they need to protect our country from future attacks. At this point in the Record I will insert a table identifying the details of the conference report. [GRAPHIC] [TIFF OMITTED] TH2302.001 [GRAPHIC] [TIFF OMITTED] TH2302.002 [GRAPHIC] [TIFF OMITTED] TH2302.003 [GRAPHIC] [TIFF OMITTED] TH2302.004 [GRAPHIC] [TIFF OMITTED] TH2302.005 [GRAPHIC] [TIFF OMITTED] TH2302.006 [GRAPHIC] [TIFF OMITTED] TH2302.007 [GRAPHIC] [TIFF OMITTED] TH2302.008 [GRAPHIC] [TIFF OMITTED] TH2302.009 [GRAPHIC] [TIFF OMITTED] TH2302.010 [GRAPHIC] [TIFF OMITTED] TH2302.011 [GRAPHIC] [TIFF OMITTED] TH2302.012 [GRAPHIC] [TIFF OMITTED] TH2302.013 [GRAPHIC] [TIFF OMITTED] TH2302.014 [GRAPHIC] [TIFF OMITTED] TH2302.015 [GRAPHIC] [TIFF OMITTED] TH2302.016 [GRAPHIC] [TIFF OMITTED] TH2302.017

Mr. YOUNG of Florida. Mr. Speaker, I yield 4\1/2\ minutes to the distinguished gentleman from Kentucky (Mr. Rogers), the chairman of the Subcommittee on Transportation. (Mr. ROGERS of Kentucky asked and was given permission to revise and extend his remarks.)

Mr. YOUNG of Florida

Mr. YOUNG of Florida. Mr. Speaker, I ask unanimous consent that the managers on the part of the House have until midnight, Friday, July 19, 2002, to file a conference report on the bill (H.R. 4775) making supplemental appropriations for further recovery from and response to terrorists attacks on the United States for the fiscal year ending September 30, 2002, and for other purposes.