Pete Domenici: “I rise to tell the Senate this is a good bill. I hope we will pass it. The Senate passed this bill 97-1. It went to…”

“I rise to tell the Senate this is a good bill. I hope we will pass it. The Senate passed this bill 97-1. It went to conference. Obviously, there were some changes made in conference but clearly not significant enough to have somebody vote against this bill. When the call of the roll occurs, we are going to hear that a number of Senators on the other side of the aisle are going to vote against the bill. I hope everybody understands that most of them have asked for things in this bill, and they have been granted things in this bill their States desperately need. I don't know how all that will work out, but they are being asked to vote against this because the President of the United States, after signing similar language regarding the Missouri River four different times, has suggested that this year, if it is in this bill, he will veto it. This bill has taken much work on the defense side; that is, for the nuclear deterrent, nuclear weapons activities of America, and those activities related to it that have to do with nonproliferation. We have done an excellent job in increasing some of the very important work of these National Laboratories and our nuclear defense deterrent, people, equipment, and facilities. Sooner or later many more Senators are going to have to recognize the significance of that part of this bill. The second part of it has to do with nondefense discretionary appropriations; that is, mostly water and water projects across this great land.”