C. W. Bill Young: “Mr. Chairman, one of the big arguments here today seems to be the fact that the Congress is recommending more funding…”

“Mr. Chairman, one of the big arguments here today seems to be the fact that the Congress is recommending more funding for our national defense capabilities than the President asked for. Well, the President's record on estimating the length of time of a military deployment and how much the cost is going to be is not all that great. For example, in Bosnia, for those of us who attended those first meetings about Bosnia, we were told that we would be in Bosnia for about a year, and it would cost about $1.2 billion. But, Mr. Chairman, 5 years later and $10 billion later, we are still in Bosnia. This administration's record on estimating how long the deployment is going to take or how much it is going to cost is not very good. Now, the gentleman from Wisconsin (Mr. Obey) likes to make the point that we have included items that the Pentagon did not want, and he makes this argument every time there is a defense bill on the floor. But let me explain how this works.”