Haley Stevens: “I regretfully must oppose Senator McCain's amendment. I understand the amendment, but it takes a different approach to…”

“I regretfully must oppose Senator McCain's amendment. I understand the amendment, but it takes a different approach to funding critical Department of Defense priorities for fiscal year 2000 than the committee has approved in this bill before the Senate. Based upon the amounts that we provided in the fiscal year 1999 emergency supplemental appropriations for Kosovo and funds that were remaining from the 1999 supplemental for Bosnia, the committee determined--and I add that it was at my request--that at least $3.1 billion now available to the Department of Defense can and should be carried over to the year 2000. As a matter of fact, on the floor of the Senate I stated that our intent was to try and take care of some of the year 2000 obligations in that supplemental to best reflect the needs of the Department and the pressures across the discretionary accounts under the 1997 budget agreement. Our committee adjusted the totals in this bill to reflect those specific amounts that carry over from the 1999 appropriation into the year 2000.”