Haley Stevens: “I will close. It is my hope the Senate will also realize the request we have made-- I have made it to the leadership on…”

“I will close. It is my hope the Senate will also realize the request we have made-- I have made it to the leadership on both sides--to take the defense portion of this bill first. The House has not acted upon this bill yet. We will go on recess on Friday. While we are gone, the House will act on it. It is my opinion that the House should know how we feel about the defense side, the $66 billion. We should await their action on the $20.3 billion. That is to me sort of a division of labor, you might say. We have worked very hard on the defense side of the bill. I believe we have a general agreement of where we are going to come out with it. We presented what we call the chairman's mark in the bill that is before the Senate today. It will be subject to some amendments. I hope Members will cooperate by looking at that portion of the bill first. We will deal with the $20.3 billion when we believe we have completed that review. I would like to be able to tell the House that we have finished the defense portion and we await your consideration of what you think we should do with the $20.3 billion. They have had some substantial hearings on that side, too. The House held hearings on both portions of this request from the President. I believe this is a new approach to funding this kind of an operation. It is a new operation.…”