Haley Stevens: “I sat through the hearings Senator Byrd held as chairman on homeland security. I know the amounts that are in his…”

“I sat through the hearings Senator Byrd held as chairman on homeland security. I know the amounts that are in his amendment are amounts of money that various persons from throughout our society and from community after community all over the country have asked for. It is money they want. There is no question they want this money. We had a plan to make it available. Actually, it should have been made available sometime early last year, but we never got do that because we didn't have a budget last year. And we were unable to move the appropriations bills last year because of the lack of a budget. What I am seeking to do today, and started yesterday, is to ask the Senate to exercise a rare type of discipline and allow us to take these bills to conference.”