Conference Report on H.R. 4837, Military Construction Appropriations Act, 2005
CONFERENCE REPORT ON H.R. 4837, MILITARY CONSTRUCTION APPROPRIATIONS ACT, 2005 -- (House of Representatives - October 09, 2004)
Mr. KNOLLENBERG. Mr. Speaker, I ask unanimous consent that it be in order at any time to consider the conference report to accompany the bill (H.R. 4837) making appropriations for military construction, family housing, and base realignment and closure for the Department of Defense for the fiscal year ending September 30, 2005, and for other purposes; that all points of order against the conference report and against its consideration be waived, and that the conference report be considered as read.
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Mr. BOYD. Mr. Speaker, I want to thank my friend, the gentleman from Texas (Mr. Edwards), for yielding me the time.
I want to start by thanking the gentleman from Michigan (Mr. Knollenberg), our chairman, and the gentleman from Texas (Mr. Edwards), our ranking member, for their work to get to this point. They truly worked in a bipartisan way. There are two components to this bill that we have before us on the floor, Mr. Speaker, and that is, the MILCON portion and also the hurricane supplemental portion. We have heard about both of them, but I just want to make a few brief comments.
First of all, on the MILCON side, the gentleman from Michigan (Mr. Knollenberg) and the gentleman from Texas (Mr. Edwards) did the very best they could with the dollars given them, but my colleagues must know that the dollars are short. Many of the items that the President sent down for the MILCON request are not included in this bill simply because the House leadership did not set aside enough money to fulfill those requests made by the President to prosecute the war.
I must tell my colleagues that there is one item in here, though, that the gentleman from Michigan (Mr. Knollenberg) and the gentleman from Texas (Mr. Edwards) did bring in for a landing, and that is, the housing issue, to privatize the housing cap. I think all of this Nation, and particularly the troops and their families, owe a debt of gratitude to the gentleman from Michigan (Mr. Knollenberg) and especially the gentleman from Texas (Mr. Edwards) who has bulldogged this issue for so many years now. He has done an absolutely fantastic job.
We heard our chairman, the gentleman from Florida (Chairman Young) speak on the hurricane side, the hurricane relief. I want to thank the gentleman from Florida (Chairman Young), Mr. Speaker, if I could, for the work that he has done. As everybody knows, the request that came down from the White House was insufficient. The gentleman from Florida (Mr. Young) made a commitment to his people that he would get the money, and President Bush has provided it, but he has only provided it at the insistence of the gentleman from Florida (Mr. Young) who would not quit until he got what he needed.
We needed that money because our beaches were destroyed. The gentleman from Florida (Mr. Miller) and I and our people lived through those hurricanes. Most of our people lived through them. We had some people who did not live through them. I had six constituents that died in Hurricane Ivan, Mr. Speaker, and this money was much needed to repair our beaches, to repair the transportation systems that were busted.
We have all seen the pictures of I-10, to repair the military facilities. The naval air station in Pensacola had significant damage. So it is imperative that we did this, and we owe a debt of gratitude to the gentleman from Florida (Mr. Young) for getting it here.
I must tell my colleagues, Mr. Speaker, though, that it has been held up because of several issues, but one of those issues was the offset which was going to be required for some of the agricultural funding. Mr. Speaker, that issue has been resolved with a smoke-and-mirrors game as the public will begin to understand as we go on. It is offset by directed scoring, and it is also offset sometime in the future, as many as 10 years out into the future, and it is offset in the farm bill, and we will write a new farm bill before we even get the full offset.
Again, let me close, Mr. Speaker, by thanking again the gentleman from Texas (Mr. Edwards) and the gentleman from Michigan (Mr. Knollenberg) but also the gentleman from Florida (Chairman Young) for bringing this in for a landing.
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