Don Young: “I agree with the lady from Texas, her comments about the water resources bill. We passed it three times over to the…”

“I agree with the lady from Texas, her comments about the water resources bill. We passed it three times over to the other side of the aisle, and for three times they punted. And I think they have been kicking at the wrong goal, because we have not been able to finish this program. This is a badly needed piece of legislation. The total bill itself has to be passed sooner or later, and it should be passed sooner; but it is not going to be. I expect to work with Mr. Oberstar and the chairman of the subcommittee; we were really thinking we would probably pass the bill that we have in conference today and go immediately to conference to get this done, and I will tell you that I will do everything in my power to work with the majority as the minority leader in trying to get this legislation passed. And, by the way, there are no dollars in the bill's authorization, but in the meantime we have things such as this bill we are talking about today that should have been passed previously that is going to expire.”