C. Young

Mr. YOUNG of Florida

Mr. YOUNG of Florida. Mr. Chairman, we will work with the gentlewoman and try to do that.

Mr. YOUNG of Florida. Mr. Chairman, I yield myself the balance of my time. Mr. Chairman, again, I just want to remind the Members that we reduced the President's budget request in the supplemental from over $400 million to $160 million. That was in the nonemergency part of the bill. So we have already made a substantial reduction. But the $420 million worth of offsets, we kept those offsets. So we really made some money for the taxpayer in that regard. Another point is that defense has become a part of this discussion. I mentioned in my opening comments about the nuclear weapons facilities that we need to upgrade for safety reasons. That is national defense. The nuclear weapons facilities are part of our national defense. They are a major part of our deterrence that says to the rest of the world: Do not mess with America. But those facilities have to be safe to protect the people who live around them and work around them. The Stearns amendment would make a reduction in monies going to make those nuclear weapons facilities safe. I just cannot accept that amendment. I wish that I could, but I cannot. Mr. Chairman, I yield back the balance of my time.

Mr. YOUNG of Florida. Mr. Chairman, may I inquire as to how much time I have remaining?

Mr. YOUNG of Florida. Mr. Chairman, I reserve a point of order on the amendment of the gentlewoman from Ohio (Ms. Kaptur).

Mr. YOUNG of Florida. Mr. Chairman, I rise to claim the time in opposition.

Mr. YOUNG of Florida. Mr. Chairman, I thank the gentleman for yielding. I would like to announce to the House that we are prepared to accept the amendment. It is the excellent amendment that the gentleman has offered many times, and has been accepted by this House many times. We accept the gentleman's amendment.

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

Mr. YOUNG of Florida. Mr. Chairman, I yield 30 seconds to the gentleman from Wisconsin (Mr. Obey).

Mr. YOUNG of Florida. Mr. Chairman, I yield 1 minute to the gentleman from Massachusetts (Mr. Olver), as a member of the Committee on Appropriations.

Mr. YOUNG of Florida. Mr. Chairman, I yield 15 seconds to the gentleman from New York (Mr. Engel). (Mr. ENGEL asked and it was given permission to revise and extend his remarks.)

Mr. YOUNG of Florida. I yield to the gentleman from New Mexico, the distinguished subcommittee chairman, to respond to the gentleman's colloquy.

Mr. YOUNG of Florida. Mr. Chairman, I yield myself the balance of my time. Mr. Chairman, I want to repeat that this is a serious amendment and should be rejected in a very serious way. Now, the issues that our colleague, the gentleman from Texas (Mr. Paul), has raised, are major policy decisions that need to be made, but this is not the bill to do so. I would suggest to the gentleman that he should go to the Committee on International Relations or he should go to the Committee on Armed Services to deal with the issues that he has raised. He deserves a debate on those issues but not on this bill. This is an appropriations bill, this is not a bill where policy is set. And so I ask the Paul amendment be rejected in a very strong and serious way. Mr. Chairman, I yield back the balance of my time.

Mr. YOUNG of Florida. Mr. Chairman, I rise to claim the time in opposition.

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

Mr. YOUNG of Florida. Mr. Chairman, I move to strike the last word.

Mr. YOUNG of Florida. Mr. Chairman, I yield 2 minutes to the gentleman from Pennsylvania (Mr. Murtha), the very distinguished leading expert on national defense issues.

Mr. YOUNG of Florida. Mr. Chairman, I yield 10 seconds to the gentleman from Alabama (Mr. Callahan).

Mr. YOUNG of Florida. Mr. Chairman, would the Chair advise us of the remaining time on each side.

Mr. YOUNG of Florida. Mr. Chairman, I yield myself such time as I may consume. Mr. Chairman, very reluctantly, I rise in opposition to this amendment. I do so, not because I disagree with the gentleman from Ohio (Mr. Kasich), because I agree with almost everything that he said. The problem is with the amendment itself. I am concerned that his limitation on not more than 50 percent of the funds in the Kosovo section could not be released until certain things happened. The problem with this is, Mr. Chairman, money has already been spent. We are not providing money in this bill for Kosovo to rebuild Kosovo. We are not doing anything in this bill to actually deploy troops to Kosovo. What we do in this bill is replace the money that has already been spent by the deployment to Kosovo. Now, if we were in a position to demand certain things from the European allies, I would be standing up here with the gentleman from Ohio (Mr. Kasich) to do that, because I think that that is only fair. But as I read this amendment closely, not only on the first page, but the third page, just let me make one comment about a section on the third page, it says, if the President does not submit to Congress a certification required, et cetera, et cetera, then beginning on June 2, the 50 percent of the amounts appropriated in this act can only be used to remove the troops. Now, I am for removing the troops. But I have to tell my colleagues that the money in the bill is not there to remove the troops. This money is to replace monies that have already been spent. The monies have been spent from the fourth quarter operations and maintenance accounts of our military services. Now, if we do not replenish this money, we are going to have to stand down our training exercises, park the ships, park the airplanes, park the trucks, park the tanks, and training will grind to a halt. We do not have until June 2 to make that decision. That decision has got to be made late in April or early in May because, for those exercises that have to be stood down. The planning has to begin in April or May. So as strongly as I agree with the gentleman from Ohio (Mr. Kasich) and what he is trying to accomplish, this amendment will not accomplish that; and this amendment will cause severe chaos, in fact, in the operations and maintenance of our military during the last quarter of this fiscal year. Mr. Chairman, I reserve the balance of my time.

Mr. YOUNG of Florida. Mr. Chairman, I yield 2 minutes to the gentleman from Alabama (Mr. Callahan), chairman of the Subcommittee on Foreign Operations, Export Financing and Related Programs. (Mr. CALLAHAN asked and was given permission to revise and extend his remarks.)

Mr. YOUNG of Florida. Mr. Chairman, I yield myself 30 seconds just to say that the gentleman from Ohio (Mr. Kasich) mentioned that we did add additional money to the defense part of this bill. That is true. However, it is not applicable to the section that we are dealing with in his amendment, and that is the problem that I have in his amendment. The money that we added yesterday was for specific purposes other than Kosovo. The gentleman's amendment goes directly to the issue of Kosovo, and that is not where the extra money was added. Mr. Chairman, I yield 1 minute to the distinguished gentleman from Wisconsin (Mr. Obey).

Mr. YOUNG of Florida. Mr. Chairman, I yield 1 minute to the gentleman from Michigan (Mr. Bonior).

Mr. YOUNG of Florida

Mr. YOUNG of Florida. Mr. Speaker, if the gentleman would continue to yield, I would like to advise Members that it is my intent to expedite consideration, so I would be objecting to any extra time above and beyond the rule.

Mr. YOUNG of Florida. Mr. Speaker, if the gentleman would yield, it is my intent to expedite the completion of this supplemental. We have, as the gentleman understands, from last evening's unanimous consent request, we have a number of amendments that were agreed to that would be considered. We will proceed in the regular order and consider those amendments, and I would expect we would roll the votes on some of them and hopefully complete our business on this bill as we approach the noon hour, or shortly thereafter. That would be my hope and my intent.

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.R. 3908, and that I may include tabular and extraneous material.