Bruce F. Vento: “Mr. Chairman, obviously there is an opportunity here with the acceptance of the modified Kennedy amendment I am…”

“Mr. Chairman, obviously there is an opportunity here with the acceptance of the modified Kennedy amendment I am targeting. I thank my colleague from New York for his work, and my colleague from Massachusetts. This is a simple amendment. I think that most Members have come to realize the importance of trying to provide funding for activities that relate to drug and crime prevention in and around or in public housing. Recently we revised that to provide an extension outside of public housing. This amendment would do that. This COMPAC program is an improved drug elimination program that expires under this bill at the end of this fiscal year, 1996. We had initially thought that the amendment should be for the full authorization of the bill which is years. So I had sought to in fact provide a 5-year authorization for COMPAC. But in consultation with the subcommittee chairman, he felt that a 2-year authorization would be best for this program so that it would be before us in the next Congress, and I concurred with that. That is why we modified the amendment accordingly.”