Louis Stokes: “Mr. Speaker, it is not without a certain bittersweet feeling that I rise today in support of this conference agreement.…”

“Mr. Speaker, it is not without a certain bittersweet feeling that I rise today in support of this conference agreement. This is the final appropriations bill that I will help bring to the House, along with the chairman of the subcommittee, the distinguished gentleman from California (Mr. Lewis). Thanks to his leadership and patience, we present today a balanced, bipartisan conference report that is worthy of the Members' support. In many ways the bill we present today is better than the House-passed version. I will mention several instances that demonstrate this point. First, while the House bill included no funding for Americorps, the conference provides the Senate amount of $425 million. Given the President's personal interest and commitment to this program, I think we all realize there would be no bill without this funding. Several environmental provisions that were of great concern have been modified, including the ones dealing with the Kyoto protocol, Mercury, and contaminated sediment dredging. The House provision regarding domestic partners that would have restricted funds available to the City of San Francisco has been dropped. One-half of the reduction to the housing opportunities for persons with AIDS program imposed by a floor amendment has been restored.”