C. W. Bill Young: “Mr. Speaker, we bring back a good conference report today. It is a bipartisan conference report providing for the…”

“Mr. Speaker, we bring back a good conference report today. It is a bipartisan conference report providing for the national defense of our national readiness today, midterm and longterm. The total of the bill is $243.3 billion. That is $1.7 billion more than fiscal year 1995, but it is $746 million less than the House-passed bill. Mr. Speaker, we had a very difficult conference. We had over 1,700 items in disagreement with the other body. Those complications were further complicated by a further reduction in our 602(b) allocation during the conference of $858 million. We were able to work out all of the issues. It required some compromise on both sides; compromise that maybe at times was not exactly pleasant to all of us, but we managed to work out those issues and I want to thank the people that served on the subcommittee as conferees and the members of the staff for the tremendous work that was done. One of the major cornerstones of our Contract With America was to revitalize our national defense, to make a change in the 11-year reduction in providing for our national defense. This bill does that. This bill is a basic part of our Contract With America. This keeps faith with our troops. We provide quality-of-life funding in this bill above the President's budget request, such as housing allowances, and we add additional money for barracks renovation.”