Conference Report on H.R. 4818, Consolidated Appropriations Act, 2005

CONFERENCE REPORT ON H.R. 4818, CONSOLIDATED APPROPRIATIONS ACT, 2005 -- (House of Representatives - November 20, 2004)

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Mr. HOYER. Mr. Speaker, I thank the distinguished gentleman from Wisconsin, our ranking member, who does such an extraordinary job on the Committee on Appropriations in focusing us on our priorities as a Nation.

Mr. Speaker, initially I want to rise and say that the gentleman from Florida (Mr. Young), our chairman, is like Sara Lee, nobody doesn't like BILL YOUNG, and that goes for everybody on our side of the aisle.

I want to say some nice things, and let me take just one second, but I said earlier, Mr. Speaker, during the consideration of the rule that I perceive BILL YOUNG as one of the fairest, most decent, and most positive leaders in this House. It is an honor to serve with him. I will tell my colleagues, as an opponent of term limits, I think the fact that BILL YOUNG is leaving as chairman of the committee is another compelling argument against term limits. His talent, his fairness, his vision will be missed as our chairman. Thankfully, he will still be on our committee, giving us his sound counsel and leadership.

And, BILL, I want to thank you from the bottom of my heart for the example you have set for all of us of what it means to be an American, working together on behalf of our country and not on behalf of our party, on either side. I thank you for that, sir.

Mr. Speaker, here we are yet again this year considering an end-of-session omnibus appropriations bill not because of our Chairman Young but because of the disagreements, frankly, within his party. This is the fourth in the last 5 years and the eighth time in 10 years since our Republican friends regained the House majority that we have not passed appropriation bills as they should have been passed.

This clearly is not how our appropriations process should work, with this House rolling nine separate appropriation bills into one and giving the Members just a few hours to review it. My chairman said 14 hours. The distinguished ranking member of the Committee on Agriculture is reviewing the bill right now. It is, I judge, at least two feet tall, right in front of her. I do not know whether the camera panned to that, but it is an extraordinary document.

It epitomizes this failed 108th Congress in which Republicans failed to enact the budget, failed to enact an energy plan, failed to enact a transportation bill, failed to enact welfare reform, failed to enact higher education reauthorization, and failed to enact a patients' bill of rights.

Now, despite this dreadful appropriations process, there are many good provisions, as Chairman Young has said, in this bill. Not only that, I am going to vote for this bill.

For example, there are more than $90 million to support an African Union peacekeeping force intended to end genocide in Darfur, Sudan. We must act on that. This bill also maintains the Federal commitment to election reform, providing $14 million for the new Election Assistance Commission. And we again recognize the dedicated service of our Federal civilian employees by providing a 3.5 percent pay raise, which is consistent with the pay increase for our men and women in uniform. Our staffs, hopefully, will all receive that as well. These funds also allow FDA employees to move from substandard workplaces into modern, state-of-the-art facilities.

Finally, let me say that I am disappointed, however, that the A-76 outsourcing, supported by the majority of this House and the majority of the Senate, was nevertheless dropped out of the conference report. This will put Federal employees at greater risk.

Let me conclude, Mr. Speaker, by saying that I am disappointed that we once again failed to reimburse small airports in the Washington, D.C., area. The Republicans and ourselves say we are on the side of small business. These airports have been disadvantaged by the actions of the terrorists and by our security concerns closing them down. We should have made them whole in this bill. We did not. I hope that in the future we will.

Again, I thank BILL YOUNG for his leadership and for his service.