Haley Stevens: “the Feingold amendment strikes the emergency designation for the Bosnian funds from the bill. This supplemental request…”

“the Feingold amendment strikes the emergency designation for the Bosnian funds from the bill. This supplemental request is mandated by section 8132 of the appropriations bill for 1999. If the President certifies that the mission to Bosnia must continue, under the law this then continues. Bosnia costs are emergency, as Congress specifically funded only through June 30, 1998. The problem we face now is the cost of the continued deployment has already been paid. The administration has sought to seek these funds to avoid damage to the readiness and the quality of life that the military faces, which is not currently deployed, but they may face missions, as I have told the Senate before, to Bosnia or Iraq within the remainder of this year. The emergency designation allows those moneys necessary for this deployment to come out of the emergency fund rather than having to come out of reprogrammed accounts for the moneys we have already appropriated for quality of life and for readiness for the remainder of the force that is not deployed. Under the circumstances, I agree with Senator Feingold's position.”