Wayne Allard: “I will get back on the subject of the Interior appropriations bill, if I might. I start out my comments by thanking…”

“I will get back on the subject of the Interior appropriations bill, if I might. I start out my comments by thanking Senator Burns, my good friend and colleague from Montana, chairman of the Interior Appropriations Subcommittee, and the ranking member, Senator Dorgan, and their staffs for the hard work that went into this bill. We all knew this was not going to be an easy process this year because it is a tough budget year and difficult adjustments had to be made. I respect the President and his effort to try and hold down Federal spending. Senator Burns and I, who both serve on the Budget Committee, understand the importance of trying to bring some fiscal sanity to the process. I do respect many of the comments my colleague from Oklahoma made on the floor. The only comment I have is that the time to have made many of those points is when the budget itself was before us. When the budget was before us, we had an opportunity to hold down spending. Many of us were disappointed at the level of spending that ended up being reflected out of the budget proposal, but I do want to commend Senator Burns and his staff for staying within the 302(b) allocation, or the amount of money that was allocated through the budget to the Appropriations Committee, that eventually was reflected in the total amount of spending in this bill. So from my point of view, I found the chairman of the Interior Appropriations Subcommittee to be very responsible and diligent in his duties.…”