Don Nickles: “S. 1426, the fiscal year 2004 Foreign Operations, Export Financing, and Related Programs Appropriations Act for 2004, as…”

“S. 1426, the fiscal year 2004 Foreign Operations, Export Financing, and Related Programs Appropriations Act for 2004, as reported by the Senate Committee on Appropriations provides $18.1 billion in discretionary budget authority and $20.3 billion in discretionary outlays in fiscal year 2004 for Foreign Operations appropriations. This bill contains about two-thirds of total international affairs spending in the budget. The bill funds U.S. Export and Investment Assistance, Bilateral Economic Assistance, Military Assistance, and Multilateral Economic Assistance. The bill equals the Subcommittee's 302(b) allocation for budget authority and is $9 million in outlays below the 302(b) allocation. The bill provides $796 million less in budget authority and $713 million less in outlays than the President's budget request. The bill provides $5.6 billion in budget authority less and $148 million in outlays more than the 2003 enacted level including 2003 supplemental appropriations. Excluding those supplemental appropriations, the bill provides a $1.866 billion increase over last year, or 11.5 percent. I am concerned about a proposed amendment that would add funds for Global HIV/AIDs programs without providing an offset within the bill. Any amendments that add funding without offsets will have a budget act violation and I will not be able to support them.”