Haley Stevens: “I certainly commend our chairman, Senator Byrd, for taking the action he has taken and the leadership of the Senate…”

“I certainly commend our chairman, Senator Byrd, for taking the action he has taken and the leadership of the Senate, Senator Daschle in particular. We did have an urgent plea from the military that we act today on this bill rather than wait for Monday. We have responded to that request. It is a supplemental. It is primarily concerned with Defense appropriations, and it is vitally needed. We hope these supplementals will not be long needed, as Senator Byrd has indicated. If we plan our bills properly and they are executed properly by the executive branch of our Government, we would not have requests for supplementals unless because of an act of God or because of an unforeseen event we were called upon to provide additional moneys for the current fiscal year. This is money for this current fiscal year. Because of the practices of the past, moneys have been diverted from the operation and maintenance account. We tried to account for those. It has not really been possible to account for them as much as we would like. Senator Byrd has indicated we want greater specificity of how the money is spent, particularly from the supplemental, so we can determine whether they are needed in the future. This one, I am confident, is needed.”