Pete Domenici: “my amendment does not increase the cost of the emergency supplemental in any way. What it does is it freezes in place…”

“my amendment does not increase the cost of the emergency supplemental in any way. What it does is it freezes in place the current posture of civilian personnel authorizations at all Army Test Ranges, including White Sands Missile Range until such time as the Congress, and this Committee, has an opportunity to consider the merits of the President's fiscal year 1999 budget as it relates to this installation. It is a very simple, straight forward amendment, and it is necessary for me to proceed in this way at this time because the Department of the Army has chosen to circumvent the congressional oversight process. Let me tell you how: Because of budgetary constraints, the Department of the Army made a distributional decision that would reduce White Sands Missile Range's WSMR's, overall RDT&E budget by approximately $17 million in fiscal year 1999. As a result, WSMR was asked to plan for a reduction of as many as 550 full-time civilian positions.”