Barbara Mikulski: “Thank you, very much, Madam President. Today, I rise to join my distinguished colleague, the Senator from Missouri, to…”

“Thank you, very much, Madam President. Today, I rise to join my distinguished colleague, the Senator from Missouri, to offer for floor debate and the consideration of the Senate the fiscal year 1998 appropriations bill for VA-HUD and independent agencies. This is an extraordinary bill because it deals with 7 Cabinet-level Government agencies and 18 other agencies that are important to the United States of America. These agencies range from Veterans, Housing, the Environmental Protection Agency, the National Space Agency, the National Science Foundation, Federal Emergency Management Agency, as well as the National Corporation for Volunteer Services, and we go on to Selective Service. People would be surprised to know that Arlington Cemetery is also funded in this bill. We stand sentry for consumers through the consumer product safety legislation. Those little pamphlets that taxpayers send for from Pueblo, CO, a big chunk of their funding comes out of this bill. So when we say veterans, housing, and independent agencies, this is probably, along with defense and the Labor-HHS bill, the most complex bill. Therefore, when we bring it to the Senate, sometimes our funding sounds like it is significant in terms of its dollar amount, but we really have worked very hard to get a dollar's worth of services for a dollar of taxes.”