Pete Domenici: “today I bring to the floor the Energy and Water Development Appropriations conference report for fiscal year 2004…”

“today I bring to the floor the Energy and Water Development Appropriations conference report for fiscal year 2004, approved by the conference committee last week. My ranking member, Senator Reid, and I have worked very hard this year to put together a fair conference report under extremely difficult circumstances. For fiscal year 2004, the allocation to the conference committee was $27.3 billion, an amount that is only $381.8 million over the President's request. This situation posed a daunting challenge to the conference, both in terms of funding and philosophy. As many of my colleagues know, the President's request dramatically cut water projects well below the current year level. In fact, the President's request was $530 million below the current year level for water projects, and we received an increased allocation smaller than what we considered the total need of our conference report.”