C. Young

Mr. YOUNG of Florida

Mr. YOUNG of Florida. Mr. Speaker, I ask unanimous consent that the gentleman from Florida (Mr. Jeff Miller) be permitted to take the oath of office today. His certificate of election has not arrived, but there is no contest; and no question has been raised with regard to his election.

Mr. YOUNG of Florida

Mr. YOUNG of Florida. Mr. Speaker, as a senior Member of the Florida delegation, it is my privilege to present to my colleagues in the House and ask them to join me in welcoming Jeff Miller to the people's House. Mr. Speaker, prior to his election on October 16, the gentleman from Florida (Mr. Jeff Miller) was a member of the Florida legislature where he distinguished himself extremely well. He is a hard worker, and he represents a district that is vital to the national security interests of the United States, the First Congressional District of Florida. If the gentleman gets any more military establishments there, it is probably going to sink into the Gulf of Mexico. He has a tremendous responsibility representing that type of district here in the Congress, and especially in today's world when national security is in all of our minds. Mr. Speaker, one of the important things about the gentleman from Florida (Mr. Jeff Miller) is that he was my constituent for 14 years. He was born and grew up in the district that I have had the honor to represent for a long time; and that makes me doubly proud of the gentleman, and I am extremely happy to present to the gentleman his colleagues in the House of Representatives.

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.J. Res. 69, making further continuing appropriations for the fiscal year 2002, and for other purposes, and that I may include tabular and extraneous material.

Mr. YOUNG of Florida

Mr. YOUNG of Florida. Mr. Speaker, I ask unanimous consent that the Committee on Appropriations be discharged from further consideration of the joint resolution (H.J. Res. 69) making further continuing appropriations for the fiscal year 2002, and for other purposes, and ask for its immediate consideration in the House.

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

Mr. YOUNG of Florida. I thank the gentleman for yielding and for reserving the right to object so we can have this brief discussion. Mr. Speaker, the legislation before the House, H.J. Res. 69, will extend the current continuing resolution for an additional week, allowing the Government to continue to operate through October 31. As my colleagues are well aware, we have lost several days because of evacuations of the Capitol and for other reasons. We intend to complete the appropriations business expeditiously, but we do need to extend the CR through the 31st. The terms and conditions of the previous CRs remain in effect. All ongoing activities will be continued at current rates under the same terms and conditions as fiscal year 2001. Mr. Speaker, I want to thank the gentleman for the time, and I want to thank the gentleman for his cooperation in making sure that the business of the House is expedited.

Mr. YOUNG of Florida

Mr. YOUNG of Florida. Mr. Speaker, I thank the gentleman for yielding, and I would like to say to the Members of the House, Mr. Speaker, that this conference went very smooth because of the good work being done by the gentleman from New Mexico (Mr. Skeen), the chairman, and the gentleman from Washington (Mr. Dicks), the ranking member. The gentleman from Wisconsin (Mr. Obey) and I had an opportunity to participate in this conference agreement. Our colleagues in the Senate did as well. Most of the controversies were almost all eliminated. We have a good bill here today, and I appreciate the gentleman reserving the right to object so that we can have this brief dialogue on this bill, and I would hope that we would receive the support of the membership.

Mr. YOUNG of Florida

Mr. YOUNG of Florida. Mr. Speaker, I ask unanimous consent that the Committee on Appropriations be discharged from further consideration of the joint resolution (H.J. Res. 68) making further continuing appropriations for the fiscal year 2002, and for other purposes, and ask for its immediate consideration in the House.

Mr. YOUNG of Florida. Mr. Speaker, I thank the gentleman for yielding to me just to explain briefly. Mr. Speaker, this is a continuing resolution. The CR that we passed last week runs the government until the 16th of October. It is obvious we are not going to complete all of our conference reports by then. This would extend the present CR for an additional week, until the 23rd of October, by which time we will hope to have most, if not all, of the conferences on appropriations bills completed. In addition, this CR does make a technical change to a provision in the previous CR relative to the Export-Import Bank. Also it allows the Defense Health Program to make payments under the TRICARE for Life program at rates that have already been authorized by the fiscal year 2001 National Defense Authorization Act. In addition, Mr. Speaker, this provides authority to the agencies to begin the preparation of the benefit checks that will be mailed on the first of November in order to begin processing those payments. It is important that we include that in this CR.

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. 68; and that I may include tabular and extraneous material.

Mr. YOUNG of Florida

Mr. YOUNG of Florida. Mr. Chairman, I rise to support this very good appropriations bill for our educational systems, for our health systems, for our labor programs and all of the associated programs represented by this bill. I want to add my compliments to Chairman Regula. For years, Chairman Regula chaired the Subcommittee on the Interior and did an outstanding job. This is his first time to chair this very important subcommittee, and he and Ranking Member Obey have presented a bill that I think we can all be very, very proud of. The gentleman from Ohio (Mr. Regula) and the gentleman from Wisconsin (Mr. Obey) have explained much of the detail of the bill and I am not going to reiterate that. I would like our Members to know that they might be a little surprised to see the bipartisanship in this debate today, but it was nearly 4 months ago that Chairman Regula, Ranking Member Obey and I sat together and decided that we really ought to make this a good bill that represents the needs of America rather than anyone's political agenda. That is what we have done and that is what we present to you today. This is the second largest appropriations bill of our 13 regular bills, the first being national defense. Each one equally is important. National defense and the defense appropriations provide what is needed to secure America; this bill provides what is needed to secure the people of America in their personal needs, their health needs, their educational needs. The subcommittee has done a really great job in bringing this bill before us. I wanted to compliment the gentlewoman from Pennsylvania (Ms. Hart). I listened attentively to her comments earlier today. She discussed an important issue. But I really appreciate and thank her for the statesmanlike way that she addressed not only the issue, but the way she addressed the legislative process. I think she is to be complimented for the way she has handled herself on this particular issue. It was important today to get this bill completed. It is the next to the last of the regular appropriations bills. The next one and the last one will be National Defense. Then we change direction and go to the conference reports. We plan today to have the first conference report of a regular bill, the Interior bill, on the floor; and we will move quickly to conferencing all of the other bills that have been passed by both the House and the Senate. And hopefully our Members can look forward to early dismissal on the part of appropriations bills. We will also be required to do another continuing resolution for approximately 1 week, which hopefully again we will do that this afternoon as well. With that, I would just like to again compliment the gentleman from Ohio (Mr. Regula) for an outstanding job, the gentleman from Wisconsin (Mr. Obey) for an outstanding job, and all the members of the subcommittee and the staff on both sides of the political aisle for producing a good bill for Americans, one we can all be proud of.

Mr. YOUNG of Florida

Mr. YOUNG of Florida. Mr. Chairman, I rise in support of the bill. I also rise to congratulate the gentleman from Michigan (Mr. Knollenberg) for having done an outstanding job in developing this legislation, which is one of the best D.C. appropriations bills that we have seen in a long time, and also the ranking member, the gentleman from Pennsylvania (Mr. Fattah) who was there every step of the way and had a lot of input in how this bill was finally developed. When the gentleman from Michigan became chairman of this subcommittee at the beginning of the Congress, I asked him to do two things: One was to have as good a relationship between the Congress and the Nation's capital city, Washington, D.C., as was humanly possible. I think he has done that extremely well. Also, I asked him to avoid using this bill as a vehicle for many riders that really did not belong on an appropriations bill. I think he deserves a tremendous round of applause for having eliminated 35 of those riders that really did not belong on this bill at any time, and especially not this year. So he has done a really good job. He has done a good job for our capital city, he has done a good job in the proper positioning of the Congress relative to the capital city, and he has established a great working relationship with the minority and his ranking member. He has already complimented the staff, and they certainly deserve those compliments because they have done a good job. While this is not one of the larger appropriations bills, oftentimes it has been one of the most difficult to prepare and to pass through the Congress. They have done a good job. They worked well with the city. They worked well with the gentlewoman from the District of Columbia (Ms. Norton). That is the type of teamwork that we believe the American people want to see.

Mr. YOUNG of Florida

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

Mr. YOUNG of Florida. Mr. Speaker, pursuant to the order of the House of today, I call up the joint resolution (H.J. Res. 65) making continuing appropriations for the fiscal year 2002, and for other purposes, and ask for its immediate consideration.

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, as the Speaker is well aware, all of the appropriations bills for 2002 have not been completed. The Senate has asked for a conference on the Energy and Water bill, the Interior bill, the Legislative bill, the VA-HUD bill; and we just a few minutes ago asked for a conference on the Commerce-Justice bill. We are prepared to go to conference on those bills, but we are not able to complete the conferences on those and the other bills remaining prior to the end of September, which is this weekend. And so this is a continuing resolution that would take the Government spending at the 2001 levels through October 16 of this year. We have the usual waivers that normally go with a CR. We do not add anything new to this CR. It is noncontroversial. I urge the House to move the CR so that we can get it behind us and move on to the balance of our regular 2002 bills. Mr. Speaker, I reserve the balance of my time.

Mr. YOUNG of Florida

Mr. YOUNG of Florida. Mr. Speaker, I ask unanimous consent that it be in order at any time without intervention of any point of order to consider in the House the joint resolution (H.J. Res. 65) making continuing appropriations for the fiscal year 2002, and for other purposes; that the joint resolution be considered as read for amendment; the joint resolution shall be debatable for 1 hour equally divided and controlled by the chairman and ranking member of the Committee on Appropriations; and the previous question shall be considered as ordered on the joint resolution to final passage without intervening motion except one motion to recommit.

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.J. Res. 65, and that I may include tabular and extraneous material.

Mr. YOUNG of Florida

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

Mr. YOUNG of Florida. My friend from Alaska and the chairman of the authorizing committee made the point that this is not an appropriations issue. I disagree with that. This is an appropriations issue. In fact, the first language I saw, which was about 7:30 tonight, would have taken this $15 billion from this supplemental emergency that we passed today to help recovery in New York and in Pennsylvania and in Virginia. I did not like that because we struggled to get that bill in the condition that we could all accept and vote for, which we all did. So I suggested some different language, and I believe that this new resolution or this new bill includes the language that I suggested, which was that any money coming from this bill would be subject to a subsequent appropriations bill. Am I correct? Mr. Speaker, I yield to the gentleman from Alaska (Mr. Young).

Mr. YOUNG of Florida. Good. Now what I want to make sure is that because we do not have any information, as the gentleman from New York (Mr. LaFalce) pointed out, as we had in the Chrysler loan guarantees or the New York loan guarantees, we do not have any information like that. So we do not know where we are. We quickly believe that this is going to cost about $15 billion. We used to have a little bit of information before we commit ourselves to $15 billion. So what I am asking for, and I believe the gentleman from Wisconsin (Mr. Obey) asked a similar question, I want a commitment from my friend, the gentleman from Alaska (Mr. Young) and my friend, the gentleman from Minnesota (Mr. Oberstar) that the language, if you ever come back from conference, that that language will be protected to guarantee that none of this money will come out of the supplemental that we passed today for the recovery from the terrible terrorist activities. Mr. Speaker, I want a commitment on the gentleman's part, and we will not object if we can get that commitment, that the gentleman will not present a conference report here that will allow that money to come from the supplemental; that it would not, in fact, be subject to a subsequent appropriations action.

Mr. YOUNG of Florida

Mr. YOUNG of Florida. Mr. Speaker, I yield 1 minute to the gentleman from New York (Mr. Fossella), another distinguished member of the New York delegation. (Mr. FOSSELLA asked and was given permission to revise and extend his remarks.)

Mr. YOUNG of Florida. Mr. Speaker, I yield 1 minute to my colleague, the gentleman from Florida (Mr. Shaw).

Mr. YOUNG of Florida. Mr. Speaker, I yield 2 minutes to the gentleman from Pennsylvania (Mr. Peterson), another distinguished member of the Committee on Appropriations.

Mr. YOUNG of Florida. Mr. Speaker, I yield myself 30 seconds. Mr. Speaker, I do so to say that in addition to the security of the Nation that we talk about with respect to our uniformed services and our military personnel and those who are at risk at any given time and those who serve this Nation so well, who are all volunteers, by the way, Mr. Speaker, intelligence is an important part of our Nation's security. We have a very distinguished leader as chairman of our Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence, a friend of mine for a long time, a colleague. I had the privilege of serving on the Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence for 14 years. The gentleman from Florida (Mr. Goss) is a former intelligence officer himself and has done a great job leading the Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence. Most of the time the work that the gentleman and the folks who deal with national defense do not get much exposure, because much of that work must be done in secret. Mr. Speaker, I yield 2 minutes to the gentleman from Florida (Mr. Goss), the distinguished chairman of the Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence.