Cord Byrd: “I congratulate all the conferees on this very important disaster assistance supplemental appropriation bill, and in…”

“I congratulate all the conferees on this very important disaster assistance supplemental appropriation bill, and in particular, the chairman and ranking member of the House Appropriations Committee, Chairman Livingston and Mr. Obey, as well as Senator Stevens, who chaired the conference, for the successful completion of what has been a very difficult conference. Many of the issues that came before the conference and required extensive debate were extraneous matters that had nothing to do with the primary purposes of the bill, to provide emergency appropriations for our men and women in uniform in Bosnia and Southwest Asia and to provide emergency disaster assistance to those of our citizens who have suffered from the devastating series of natural disasters that have beset the country in recent months--from the ice storms this past winter in the northeast to the flooding in the western and southern portions of the nation, as well as the recent killer tornadoes throughout the southern states. There was very little disagreement on these matters among the conferees.”