C. W. Bill Young: “Mr. Speaker, the issue of February's bill, first of all, that was not our fault. We were not permitted to bring the…”

“Mr. Speaker, the issue of February's bill, first of all, that was not our fault. We were not permitted to bring the bills in the regular period of time for fiscal year 2003. That was not our fault. The fact that the numbers were different in February, understand that in February almost half of the fiscal year was gone, and there was not any use funding the early part of the fiscal year because it was already over with. It is easy for the budget resolution to make assumptions. They can assume that you can find $7 billion, for example, in the plug that was in this 2004 budget resolution. The Committee on Appropriations has to be real. What we write in our bills becomes law. It has to be real. It has to be realistic. That is what we do. We cannot satisfy everybody. I want to compliment my friend from Pennsylvania for keeping our feet to the fire on spending. He does a really good job. And we try to balance out those who want to spend more and those who want to spend less, just to make sure that we do a responsible job in funding the government and funding essential operations. So I compliment the gentleman. Sometimes I agree with him, and sometimes I do not. In this case, I must disagree with him. I do so because his amendment would cut money from the FBI, Drug Enforcement Agency, technology for State and local enforcement.”