C. W. Bill Young: “I have to say I am a little uncomfortable here today because these Members who are proposing this amendment, I find…”

“I have to say I am a little uncomfortable here today because these Members who are proposing this amendment, I find myself more philosophically tuned in to their position than to my friends who are supporting my position on this amendment. However, I still think these Members are wrong in this case. I want to correct a couple of things. First of all, the President's budget, when he sent it down here, was $768 billion for discretionary spending. The budget that we are working under in the House is not the $768 billion that the President requested, it is $759 billion. We are under the President's budget request by $9 billion, but we are working with it. One of the earlier speakers, the gentleman from Wisconsin, talked about how this is unraveling the appropriations process. He talked about how we are going to spend all the money on the easy bills, and then we are going to rip off the bills at the end. The Labor-HHS bill under the Committee on Appropriations' 302(b) is exactly at the President's request. The 302(b) for the Commerce-Justice-State bill is only one percent below the President's request. The 302(b) for the VA-HUD bill is less than one percent below the President's request.”