Floyd Spence: “the fiscal year 1998 defense authorization bill emerged from committee earlier this year with strong bipartisan support…”

“the fiscal year 1998 defense authorization bill emerged from committee earlier this year with strong bipartisan support, and I am glad to be able to say the same thing about the conference report. Despite weeks of give and take and often difficult compromise, 33 of the 36 National Security Committee conferees signed the conference report, as did all Republican and Democrat conferees from the other body. Like the House-passed bill, the conference report takes a balanced approach to addressing a number of quality of life, readiness and modernization problems confronting our military. Although we had to compromise on a number of significant Pentagon reform provisions adopted on the House floor earlier this year due to strong administration opposition, this conference report nonetheless compels further reforms in how the Department of Defense is structured and how it conducts much of its business. On the major issues the conferees had to address, issues such as the B-2 bomber, the funding cutoff for Bosnia, depots and more, this conference report clearly represents a compromise among many interested parties. I would simply refer anyone who doubts this back to the bipartisan conference report signature sheets. On balance, this conference report strikes a fair balance between numerous competing and conflicting interests, and it deserves the support of all Members.”