Chris Smith: “Mr. Speaker, first of all, I thank the gentleman from Illinois (Mr. Evans). Again, we have collaborated on a bill…”

“Mr. Speaker, first of all, I thank the gentleman from Illinois (Mr. Evans). Again, we have collaborated on a bill working with the subcommittee chairman, the gentleman from Connecticut (Mr. Simmons), and the ranking member, the gentleman from Texas (Mr. Rodriguez), and we have produced an extraordinarily good piece of legislation. We worked with the other body, and I want to thank Senator Arlen Specter, the chairman, and the ranking member, Senator Graham. There was give and take, obviously. We began working on this very comprehensive product last spring. Again, this is a combination of a number of bills rolled and packaged into one bill. Project Shad was mentioned earlier by my colleague from California, and the gentleman from Texas (Mr. Rodriguez) mentioned it as well. This bill is not everything we would like. The next time I find a bill on this floor that is will be the first time. We did pass over to the other body the full money for the Columbus project, and we got back advance planning funding from the other body. While it is not everything we wanted, it certainly will ensure that that project goes forward. The $9 million is not chump change and will be sufficient to get the job done. I want to assure my colleagues we have done our due diligence. This is a very good piece of veterans legislation.”