Haley Stevens: “I am sure it will come to no one's surprise that I desire to use this time to discuss the appropriations bill, the…”

“I am sure it will come to no one's surprise that I desire to use this time to discuss the appropriations bill, the Defense appropriations bill that is before the Senate in the form of a conference report. Over the night I have been thinking--as a matter of fact, too many nights I have been thinking about this conference report. As I thought about it, I thought about some of the comments that have been made that this is something new; that people should not put-- I should not put a nongermane portion into this conference report because it is a violation of the rules. I remember the times we discussed Senator Byrd's steel loan guarantees or the mountaintop mining problem. I remember Senator Conrad coming to me in a conference report dealing with the great problems of disaster funding in South Dakota and the Devils Lake issue. I remember Senator Dorgan on that one, too. I remember Senator Harkin coming to me and asking me to deal with the multibillion-dollar environmental program and agriculture authorization program in an appropriations bill. I remember Senators Jeffords, Kohl, and Leahy asking me to deal with the Northeast dairy compact. I remember Senator Bill Nelson telling me about the terrible problems of the shuttle disaster and ensuring key operations at the Kennedy Space Center. For Northeast Senators on LIHEAP, in this bill, at my urging, there is a provision for $2 billion as emergency funds for LIHEAP.…”