[Congressional Record Volume 143, Number 61 (Monday, May 12, 1997)]
[Senate]
[Page S4323]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                         ADDITIONAL STATEMENTS

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               EMERGENCY SUPPLEMENTAL APPROPRIATIONS BILL

 Mr. MURKOWSKI. Mr. President, I want to express my support for 
this emergency supplemental appropriations legislation that will 
provide much needed relief to citizens in 33 States who have lived 
through some of the most catastrophic weather emergencies we have ever 
witnessed in this country. And this legislation also provides much 
needed funding for our brave service men and women who are keeping the 
peace in Bosnia.
  We have spent the entire week on this legislation and its successful 
completion is a tribute to the leadership of the new chairman of the 
Appropriations Committee, my distinguished senior colleague and close 
friend Ted Stevens and his staff for their hard work on this important 
piece of legislation.
   Mr. President, not only will this legislation provide important 
financial relief to citizens in hundreds of communities, but it will 
ensure that we will not see a repeat of the shutdown of the Government 
that occurred in 1995. And it removes the arbitrary policy of the 
Interior Department which would terminate the 130-year-old policy that 
allows States to continue to have access across public lands.
  I want to congratulate Senator Stevens on the passage of this, the 
first legislation reported by the Appropriations Committee under his 
chairmanship. I look forward to working with him on many more 
appropriations bills and am certain that the leadership he has 
demonstrated on this bill will be repeated several times over in the 
years to come.

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