C. W. Bill Young: “I wanted to, number one, congratulate him on doing a tremendous job in presenting this conference report, along with his…”

“I wanted to, number one, congratulate him on doing a tremendous job in presenting this conference report, along with his partner, the gentleman from Minnesota (Mr. Sabo), the ranking member. I know there are some differences here, but the fact of the matter is this is a good bill. This is the first real homeland security appropriations bill that the Congress has considered. Once it became evident that our homeland was no longer totally secure from terrorism, the Congress moved quickly to establish the Department of Homeland Security, and the Congress moved quickly to establish a Select Committee on Homeland Security. But when we follow the money, which is where things happen, it was the gentleman from Kentucky (Chairman Rogers) who brought the pieces together, who brought together all of those agencies that had control of homeland security-type responsibilities. He did just a tremendous job in identifying the needs and providing the support. He worked this bill through. It was one of the first bills that passed in the House. It is one of the first bills; in fact, it is the second bill that comes before us as a conference report. He has done a really good job.”