Haley Stevens: “it is my privilege and honor once again to present to the Senate the Defense appropriations bill for fiscal year 2004.…”

“it is my privilege and honor once again to present to the Senate the Defense appropriations bill for fiscal year 2004. This bill reflects a bipartisan approach that Senator Inouye and I have tried to maintain during the time we have served together on the Defense Appropriations Subcommittee. It is always a great pleasure for me to work with him and with his staff member Charlie Houy. We believe we have a bill that will meet the approval of the Senate with very few amendments. This bill was reported out of the full Appropriations Committee on July 9 by a unanimous vote; 29 Senators voted in favor of it and no Senator objected to it. We have sought to recommend a balanced bill to the Senate. We believe it addresses the key requirements for readiness, quality of life, and the reconstitution of our military force. While we are debating this bill on the floor today, there are hundreds of thousands of men and women in uniform forward deployed and serving our country abroad. They are performing superbly and we are proud of what they are accomplishing.”