Bill Bennett: “I am pleased to present the Agriculture appropriations subcommittee report to the full Senate and to recommend passage…”

“I am pleased to present the Agriculture appropriations subcommittee report to the full Senate and to recommend passage of this bill. I am very grateful to the ranking member, Senator Kohl, and his professional staff. It has been one of the most satisfying experiences of my service in the Senate to see how Senator Kohl's staff and our staff have been integrated and have performed as truly professional staffs, regardless of any partisan affiliation. I think one of the reasons the bill moved as smoothly as it did through subcommittee and full committee is that the staffs have worked together in such a professional way. I am grateful to Senator Kohl for his wisdom in the people he has chosen, and I am grateful to them for the professional way in which they have handled it. The bill is at the 302(b) discretionary allocation level of $17.005 billion. That is $873 million less than the fiscal 2003 level, which was $17.878 billion. It is always difficult to bring an appropriations bill to the floor that has an allocation lower than the previous year and, in this case, it is almost $1 billion lower. That has made the challenge of putting the bill together extremely difficult and, once again, underscores the accomplishments of the professional staff as they have dealt with this challenge.”