Pete Domenici: “Let me first say to you, I believe that this discussion and what you have done in the past in an effort to make sure…”

“Let me first say to you, I believe that this discussion and what you have done in the past in an effort to make sure that we can answer and respond to inquiries about the sufficiency or whether we appropriated too much are good for the Senate and good for the American people. So from my standpoint, I am glad you are here on the floor. And I am glad you in the past have challenged us. I have tried very hard to answer up to a responsibility that almost no one understands, and that is that the entire safety of the nuclear arsenal is funded in this bill. Most people think it is in that big defense bill. It is in this bill. Let me move on to a couple of other things. The overall expenditures in this bill, compared to the present, the overall amount in budget authority is $1.9 billion less between defense, nondefense, water and everything else. But we had increased water projects, which you alluded to, on their own by $229 million. You have been an advocate, and we worked with you, on many of those. They are tough to fund. But they did not come out of the defense money anyway. You quite appropriately asked, are they walled off? They are. That is a big part of this bill, and growing in difficulty.”