C. W. Bill Young: “the answer is, of course it depends on the bill and the situation with that bill. In the case of the defense bill that…”

“the answer is, of course it depends on the bill and the situation with that bill. In the case of the defense bill that we are dealing with now, the basic bill, the $317 billion defense bill, probably will not be that difficult to conference. Where there will be difficulty will be in the $20 billion supplemental that we have dealt with here in the House and that the other body is now dealing with and is possibly changing considerably. So it could take 4 or 5 working days, or longer, just to get that bill ready to go to conference. Once the agreements are actually reached in conference, it could take as many as 10 days in order to complete consideration of this bill. It is a major bill. Of our discretionary accounts, it is half of our discretionary spending. In most years we do not have a lot of differences going into conference on that bill, but this year, because of the $20 billion supplemental that is a result of the September 11 attacks, there are substantial differences between the House-passed bill and what the Senate is probably going to consider today or tomorrow.”