Byron Dorgan: “first let me thank Senator Burns. Senator Burns is the chairman of this appropriations subcommittee. I have been very…”

“first let me thank Senator Burns. Senator Burns is the chairman of this appropriations subcommittee. I have been very pleased to work with him. I think his leadership and his work on this subcommittee is exemplary. This is my first year on this subcommittee. I moved to this position from another subcommittee and so it is the first year I have had the opportunity to work with Senator Burns, but we have had an excellent working relationship. This is a very large appropriations subcommittee bill, and I shall not repeat that which Senator Burns has already described in any great detail, but I do want to make some points. I will go through a couple of the items. Senator Burns mentioned this bill deals with the BLM, Bureau of Land Management, and the funding for their programs, U.S. Fish and Wildlife, the National Park Service, and a number of smaller agencies as well. There is the Office of Surface Mining, Minerals Management Service, the U.S. Geological Survey, the Bureau of Indian Affairs--I am going to speak a little bit about that in a couple of minutes--and then the larger departmental offices down at the Interior Department that includes the Forest Service, which is a very large agency, the Department of Energy--a portion of the Department of Energy funding is in this--the Indian Health Service, Smithsonian, National Gallery of Art, Kennedy Center, National Endowment for the Humanities, National Endowment for the Arts, and more.…”