[Congressional Record Volume 143, Number 130 (Thursday, September 25, 1997)]
[Senate]
[Page S9963]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




         DEPARTMENT OF DEFENSE APPROPRIATIONS CONFERENCE REPORT

  Mr. BUMPERS. Mr. President, there were five votes against the 
conference report on Defense appropriations. I was one of those five. I 
do not presume to speak for any of the others. I speak only for myself, 
and I will speak at length on my reasons next week.

  But I just want to say tonight that by adopting that conference 
report we are embarking on the building of a fighter plane called the 
F-22, which is going to be twice as expensive as any fighter plane ever 
built. My guess is that it will cost somewhere between $70 and $100 
billion when it is finished, for 339. We are embarking on a $4 billion 
cost of retrofitting the Pacific fleet with D-5 missiles on ships which 
are already equipped with C-4's, and the C-4's will outlive the ships 
they are on. And for a lesser reason, of course, the $331 million in 
the bill on the B-2 bomber.
  Mr. President, if you want to spend this for new bombers, be my 
guest. If you don't, put it in spare parts. If they need spare parts 
for B-2's, let's appropriate the money to do it. But let's not use that 
kind of shenanigan to get $331 million in here and hope we can crank up 
the B-2 program again. We are talking about ringing up new expenditures 
of close to $100 billion in this. I will elaborate more extensively 
next week.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from New Jersey.
  Mr. LAUTENBERG. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent the pending 
amendment be set aside so I can make some brief remarks about the judge 
that we just confirmed here in the Senate.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. Without objection, it is so ordered.

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