Byron Dorgan: “if my colleague from Montana is going to be leaving the floor for a period, as I understand, to go to a listening…”

“if my colleague from Montana is going to be leaving the floor for a period, as I understand, to go to a listening session in the Commerce Committee--if he is going to be gone for some while, I may get a lot of legislating done on the floor of the Senate. But we will see. Actually, I will consult closely with Senator Burns's staff. We have worked well together and we put together a piece of legislation that was hard to do. I want to just tell those who think there are no spending cuts, this bill that is brought to the floor of the Senate spends $544 million less than is spent in the current fiscal year. That means we are a half billion dollars less in spending for the next fiscal year than is now being spent. Putting together an appropriations bill that cuts a half billion dollars is not a small task. It is hard. There are some areas in this legislation that I think we have not done what we should have done. We did the best we could, having to cut a half billion dollars. My colleague from Montana and his staff have been good to work with. It is the case that in the Appropriations Committee, on the subcommittees, there truly is bipartisanship. We work together to try to resolve issues in a way that provides a product that all of us can support. That is the case here today. I will in the course of time offer an amendment that will restore some funds to Indian health.…”