Angie Craig: “the majority leader has outlined for us what we will take up the balance of today and possibly tomorrow as we debate the…”

“the majority leader has outlined for us what we will take up the balance of today and possibly tomorrow as we debate the most important issue of Department of Defense appropriations. There is something that has to be said in response to what the majority leader has just outlined because while he has opined with great emotion a frustration about the basis of opposition that those of us on this side are expressing to this particular bill, what he has failed to talk about are the very agreements he once made and once entered into with our President. That agreement first started on October 2, well after September 11, as this country was beginning to assess its needs in light of a terrorist threat and how we might ultimately conclude our efforts in Congress for fiscal year 2002. The President, the majority leader from South Dakota, the Republican leader, and the House met. They looked at all of these different issues and agreed on a couple of issues. First, they agreed that $686 billion in discretionary spending was an adequate level, plus $40 billion that would be dedicated to homeland defense and the very emergencies we are talking about and the effort to deal with the great tragedy in New York City. Forty billion had already been agreed to: $20 billion of it was to be spent immediately at the discretion of the President; $20 billion was to be worked out cooperatively with the Congress and the appropriating committees of the Congress. That work has been done.…”