Haley Stevens: “I wish to make special note of thanks to staff of the subcommittees who worked so hard on this important legislation.…”

“I wish to make special note of thanks to staff of the subcommittees who worked so hard on this important legislation. This bill before the Senate required the work of seven of the appropriations subcommittees--Defense, Foreign Operations, Military Construction, Homeland Security, Commerce-Justice-State, HUD-VA, and Labor-HHS. The members of our committee staff have put in long hours working not only on this bill but on our other regular fiscal year 2004 appropriations bills. It meant working nights and most weekends of the last 5 weeks. I especially thank our staff director, Jim Morhard, who has shepherded this bill through and coordinated these subcommittees, and got us to the place where we are now. I especially thank Sid Ashworth, clerk of the Defense Subcommittee, and her counterpart on the Democratic side, Charlie Houy; and Paul Grove, clerk of the Foreign Operations Subcommittee, and his counterpart, Tim Reiser. These four hammered out the compromises on the major provisions of the legislation before the Senate today. Paul Grove deserves special recognition. He is a true professional who has worked tirelessly to help us complete action on both the supplemental and the fiscal year 2004 Foreign Operations appropriations bill at the same time. He worked literally around the clock yesterday and into today. I am not sure he has seen his family or has gotten more than 2 or 3 hours sleep every night for the last 2 weeks. I am serious.…”