Hal Rogers: “Madam Speaker, this is an historic day, consideration of the very first appropriations bill for the new Department of…”

“Madam Speaker, this is an historic day, consideration of the very first appropriations bill for the new Department of Homeland Security, which was stood up only March of this spring. This subcommittee was only stood up in March of this year, and I am very pleased with the work of our subcommittee, the committee and the Congress in bringing this bill from nowhere, no staff, offices, nothing, all the way through the hearings and to be the very first conference to take place of all 13 bills and the very first considered by the House and on the floor at this moment. It is a record that the Congress can be proud of. It is a record that the administration can be proud of in proposing the Congress respond to the creation at the outset of a new Department of Homeland Security. This conference agreement, Madam Speaker, will provide $29.4 billion for the new Department. That is an increase of $1 billion over what the President requested, and it is $535 million over what we are spending in the current fiscal year.”