[Congressional Record Volume 153, Number 19 (Wednesday, January 31, 2007)]
[House]
[Pages H1071-H1113]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
FURTHER CONTINUING APPROPRIATIONS, FISCAL YEAR 2007
Mr. OBEY. Mr. Speaker, pursuant to House Resolution 116, I call up
the joint resolution (H.J. Res. 20) making further continuing
appropriations for the fiscal year 2007, and for other purposes, and
ask for its immediate consideration.
The Clerk read the title of the joint resolution.
The text of the joint resolution is as follows:
H.J. Res. 20
Resolved by the Senate and House of Representatives of the
United States of America in Congress assembled, That this
joint resolution may be cited as the ``Revised Continuing
Appropriations Resolution, 2007''.
Sec. 2. The Continuing Appropriations Resolution, 2007
(Public Law 109-289, division B), as amended by Public Laws
109-369 and 109-383, is amended to read as follows:
``DIVISION B--CONTINUING APPROPRIATIONS RESOLUTION, 2007
``The following sums are hereby appropriated, out of any
money in the Treasury not otherwise appropriated, and out of
applicable corporate or other revenues, receipts, and funds,
for the several departments, agencies, corporations, and
other organizational units of Government for fiscal year
2007, and for other purposes, namely:
``TITLE I--FULL-YEAR CONTINUING APPROPRIATIONS
``Sec. 101. (a) Such amounts as may be necessary, at the
level specified in subsection (c) and under the authority and
conditions provided in the applicable appropriations Act for
fiscal year 2006, for projects or activities (including the
costs of direct loans and loan guarantees) that are not
otherwise provided for and for which appropriations, funds,
or other authority were made available in the following
appropriations Acts:
``(1) The Agriculture, Rural Development, Food and Drug
Administration, and Related Agencies Appropriations Act,
2006.
``(2) The Energy and Water Development Appropriations Act,
2006.
``(3) The Foreign Operations, Export Financing, and Related
Programs Appropriations Act, 2006.
``(4) The Department of the Interior, Environment, and
Related Agencies Appropriations Act, 2006.
``(5) The Departments of Labor, Health and Human Services,
and Education, and Related Agencies Appropriations Act, 2006.
``(6) The Legislative Branch Appropriations Act, 2006.
``(7) The Military Quality of Life and Veterans Affairs
Appropriations Act, 2006.
``(8) The Science, State, Justice, Commerce, and Related
Agencies Appropriations Act, 2006.
``(9) The Transportation, Treasury, Housing and Urban
Development, the Judiciary, the District of Columbia, and
Independent Agencies Appropriations Act, 2006.
``(b) For purposes of this division, the term `level' means
an amount.
``(c) The level referred to in subsection (a) shall be the
amounts appropriated in the appropriations Acts referred to
in such subsection, including transfers and obligation
limitations, except that--
``(1) such level shall not include any amount designated as
an emergency requirement, or to be for overseas contingency
operations, pursuant to section 402 of H. Con. Res. 95 (109th
Congress), the concurrent resolution on the budget for fiscal
year 2006; and
``(2) such level shall be calculated without regard to any
rescission or cancellation of funds or contract authority,
other than--
``(A) the 1 percent government-wide rescission made by
section 3801 of division B of Public Law 109-148;
``(B) the 0.476 percent across-the-board rescission made by
section 439 of Public Law 109-54, relating to the Department
of the Interior, environment, and related agencies; and
``(C) the 0.28 percent across-the-board rescission made by
section 638 of Public Law 109-108, relating to Science,
State, Justice, Commerce, and related agencies.
``Sec. 102. Appropriations made by section 101 shall be
available to the extent and in the manner that would be
provided by the pertinent appropriations Act.
``Sec. 103. Appropriations provided by this division that,
in the applicable appropriations Act for fiscal year 2006,
carried a multiple-year or no-year period of availability
shall retain a comparable period of availability.
``Sec. 104. Except as otherwise expressly provided in this
division, the requirements, authorities, conditions,
limitations, and other provisions of the appropriations Acts
referred to in section 101(a) shall continue in effect
through the date specified in section 106.
``Sec. 105. No appropriation or funds made available or
authority granted pursuant to
[[Page H1072]]
section 101 shall be used to initiate or resume any project
or activity for which appropriations, funds, or other
authority were specifically prohibited during fiscal year
2006.
``Sec. 106. Unless otherwise provided for in this division
or in the applicable appropriations Act, appropriations and
funds made available and authority granted pursuant to this
division shall be available through September 30, 2007.
``Sec. 107. Expenditures made pursuant to this division
prior to the enactment of the Revised Continuing
Appropriations Resolution, 2007, shall be charged to the
applicable appropriation, fund, or authorization provided by
this division (or the applicable regular appropriations Act
for fiscal year 2007) as in effect following such enactment.
``Sec. 108. Funds appropriated by this division may be
obligated and expended notwithstanding section 10 of Public
Law 91-672 (22 U.S.C. 2412), section 15 of the State
Department Basic Authorities Act of 1956 (22 U.S.C. 2680),
section 313 of the Foreign Relations Authorization Act,
Fiscal Years 1994 and 1995 (22 U.S.C. 6212), and section
504(a)(1) of the National Security Act of 1947 (50 U.S.C.
414(a)(1)).
``Sec. 109. With respect to any discretionary account for
which advance appropriations were provided for fiscal year
2007 or 2008 in an appropriations Act for fiscal year 2006,
the levels established by section 101 shall include advance
appropriations in the same amount for fiscal year 2008 or
2009, respectively, with a comparable period of availability.
``Sec. 110. (a) For entitlements and other mandatory
payments whose budget authority was provided in
appropriations Acts for fiscal year 2006, and for activities
under the Food Stamp Act of 1977, the levels established by
section 101 shall be the amounts necessary to maintain
program levels under current law.
``(b) In addition to the amounts otherwise provided by
section 101, the following amounts shall be available for the
following accounts for advance payments for the first quarter
of fiscal year 2008:
``(1) `Department of Labor, Employment Standards
Administration, Special Benefits for Disabled Coal Miners',
for benefit payments under title IV of the Federal Mine
Safety and Health Act of 1977, $68,000,000, to remain
available until expended.
``(2) `Department of Health and Human Services, Centers for
Medicare and Medicaid Services, Grants to States for
Medicaid', for payments to States or in the case of section
1928 on behalf of States under title XIX of the Social
Security Act, $65,257,617,000, to remain available until
expended.
``(3) `Department of Health and Human Services,
Administration for Children and Families, Payments to States
for Child Support Enforcement and Family Support Programs',
for payments to States or other non-Federal entities under
titles I, IV-D, X, XI, XIV, and XVI of the Social Security
Act and the Act of July 5, 1960 (24 U.S.C. ch. 9),
$1,000,000,000, to remain available until expended.
``(4) `Department of Health and Human Services,
Administration for Children and Families, Payments to States
for Foster Care and Adoption Assistance', for payments to
States or other non-Federal entities under title IV-E of the
Social Security Act, $1,810,000,000.
``(5) `Social Security Administration, Supplemental
Security Income Program', for benefit payments under title
XVI of the Social Security Act, $16,810,000,000, to remain
available until expended.
``Sec. 111. (a)(1) In addition to any amounts otherwise
provided by this division, such sums as may be necessary are
hereby appropriated to fund, for covered employees under a
statutory pay system (as defined by section 5302 of title 5,
United States Code), 50 percent of any increase in rates of
pay which became effective under sections 5303 through 5304a
of such title 5 in January 2007.
``(2)(A) In addition to any amounts otherwise provided by
this division, such sums as may be necessary are hereby
appropriated to provide the amount which would be necessary
to fund, for covered employees not described in paragraph
(1), 50 percent of the cost of an increase in rates of pay,
calculated as if such employees were covered by paragraph (1)
and as if such increase had been made on the first day of the
first pay period beginning in January 2007 based on the rates
that were in effect for such employees as of the day before
such first day.
``(B) Subparagraph (A) is intended only to provide funding
for pay increases for covered employees not described in
paragraph (1). Nothing in subparagraph (A) shall be
considered to modify, supersede, or render inapplicable the
provisions of law in accordance with which the size or timing
of any pay increase actually provided with respect to such
employees is determined.
``(b) Appropriations under this section shall include
funding for pay periods beginning on or after January 1,
2007, and the pay costs covered by this appropriation shall
include 50 percent of the increases in agency contributions
for employee benefits resulting from the pay increases
described in subsection (a).
``(c) For purposes of this section, the term `covered
employees' means employees whose pay is funded in whole or in
part (including on a reimbursable basis) by any account for
which funds are provided by this division (other than by
chapters 2 and 11 of title II of this division) after October
4, 2006.
``Sec. 112. Any language specifying an earmark in a
committee report or statement of managers accompanying an
appropriations Act for fiscal year 2006 shall have no legal
effect with respect to funds appropriated by this division.
``Sec. 113. Within 30 days of the enactment of this
section, each of the following departments and agencies shall
submit to the Committees on Appropriations of the House of
Representatives and the Senate a spending, expenditure, or
operating plan for fiscal year 2007 at a level of detail
below the account level:
``(1) Department of Agriculture.
``(2) Department of Commerce, including the United States
Patent and Trademark Office.
``(3) Department of Defense, with respect to military
construction, family housing, the Department of Defense Base
Closure accounts, and `Defense Health Program'.
``(4) Department of Education.
``(5) Department of Energy.
``(6) Department of Health and Human Services.
``(7) Department of Housing and Urban Development.
``(8) Department of the Interior.
``(9) Department of Justice.
``(10) Department of Labor.
``(11) Department of State and United States Agency for
International Development.
``(12) Department of Transportation.
``(13) Department of the Treasury.
``(14) Department of Veterans Affairs, including
`Construction, Major Projects'.
``(15) National Aeronautics and Space Administration.
``(16) National Science Foundation.
``(17) The Judiciary.
``(18) Office of National Drug Control Policy.
``(19) General Services Administration.
``(20) Office of Personnel Management.
``(21) National Archives and Records Administration.
``(22) Environmental Protection Agency.
``(23) Indian Health Service.
``(24) Smithsonian Institution.
``(25) Social Security Administration.
``(26) Corporation for National and Community Service.
``(27) Corporation for Public Broadcasting.
``(28) Food and Drug Administration.
``Sec. 114. Within 15 days after the enactment of this
section, the Director of the Office of Management and Budget
shall submit to the Committees on Appropriations of the House
of Representatives and the Senate--
``(1) a report specifying, by account, the amounts provided
by this division for executive branch departments and
agencies; and
``(2) a report specifying, by account, the amounts provided
by section 111 for executive branch departments and agencies.
``Sec. 115. Notwithstanding any other provision of this
division and notwithstanding section 601(a)(2) of the
Legislative Reorganization Act of 1946 (2 U.S.C. 31), the
percentage adjustment scheduled to take effect under such
section for 2007 shall not take effect.
``TITLE II--ELIMINATION OF EARMARKS, ADJUSTMENTS IN FUNDING, AND OTHER
PROVISIONS
``CHAPTER 1--AGRICULTURE, RURAL DEVELOPMENT, FOOD AND DRUG
ADMINISTRATION, AND RELATED AGENCIES
``Sec. 20101. Notwithstanding section 101, the level for
each of the following accounts for Agricultural Programs of
the Department of Agriculture shall be as follows: `Common
Computing Environment', $107,971,000; `Economic Research
Service', $74,825,000; `National Agricultural Statistics
Service', $146,543,000, of which up to $36,074,000 shall be
available until expended for the Census of Agriculture;
`Agricultural Research Service, Buildings and Facilities',
$0; `Cooperative State Research, Education, and Extension
Service, Research and Education Activities', $671,224,000;
`Cooperative State Research, Education, and Extension
Service, Extension Activities', $450,252,000; `Animal and
Plant Health Inspection Service, Salaries and Expenses',
$841,970,000; `Agricultural Marketing Service, Payments to
States and Possessions', $1,334,000; `Grain Inspection,
Packers and Stockyards Administration, Salaries and
Expenses', $37,564,000; `Food Safety and Inspection Service',
$886,982,000; and `Farm Service Agency, Salaries and
Expenses', $1,028,700,000.
``Sec. 20102. The amounts included under the heading
`Cooperative State Research, Education, and Extension
Service, Research and Education Activities' in the
Agriculture, Rural Development, Food and Drug Administration,
and Related Agencies Appropriations Act, 2006 (Public Law
109-97) shall be applied to funds appropriated by this
division as follows: by substituting `$322,597,000' for
`$178,757,000'; by substituting `$30,008,000' for
`$22,230,000'; by substituting `for payments to eligible
institutions (7 U.S.C. 3222), $40,680,000' for `for payments
to the 1890 land-grant colleges, including Tuskegee
University and West Virginia State University (7 U.S.C.
3222), $37,591,000'; by substituting `$0' for `$128,223,000';
by substituting `competitive grants for agricultural research
on improved pest control' for `special grants for
agricultural research on improved pest control'; by
substituting `$190,229,000' for `$183,000,000'; by
substituting `$1,544,000' for `$1,039,000'; by substituting
`competitive grants for the purpose of carrying out all
provisions of 7 U.S.C. 3242' for `noncompetitive grants for
the purpose of carrying out all provisions of 7 U.S.C.
[[Page H1073]]
3242'; by substituting `to institutions eligible to receive
funds under 7 U.S.C. 3221 and 3222, $12,375,000' for `to
colleges eligible to receive funds under the Act of August
30, 1890 (7 U.S.C. 321-326 and 328), including Tuskegee and
West Virginia State University, $12,312,000'; by substituting
`$3,342,000' for `$2,250,000'; by substituting `$10,083,000'
for `$50,471,000'; by substituting `$2,561,000' for
`$2,587,000'; and by substituting `$2,030,000' for
`$2,051,000'.
``Sec. 20103. The amounts included under the heading
`Cooperative State Research, Education, and Extension
Service, Extension Activities' in the Agriculture, Rural
Development, Food and Drug Administration, and Related
Agencies Appropriations Act, 2006 shall be applied to funds
appropriated by this division as follows: by substituting
`$285,565,000' for `$275,730,000'; by substituting
`$3,321,000' for `$3,273,000'; by substituting `$63,538,000'
for `$62,634,000'; by substituting `at institutions eligible
to receive funds under 7 U.S.C. 3221 and 3222, $16,777,000'
for `at the 1890 land-grant colleges, including Tuskegee
University and West Virginia State University, as authorized
by section 1447 of Public Law 95-113 (7 U.S.C. 3222b),
$16,777,000'; by substituting `$3,000,000' for `$1,196,000';
by substituting `payments for cooperative extension work by
eligible institutions (7 U.S.C. 3221), $35,205,000' for
`payments for cooperative extension work by the colleges
receiving the benefits of the second Morrill Act (7 U.S.C.
321-326 and 328) and Tuskegee University and West Virginia
State University, $33,868,000'; and by substituting
`$6,922,000' for `$25,390,000'.
``Sec. 20104. Notwithstanding section 101, the level for
each of the following accounts for Conservation Programs of
the Department of Agriculture shall be as follows: `Natural
Resources Conservation Service, Conservation Operations',
$759,124,000; and `Natural Resources Conservation Service,
Watershed and Flood Prevention Operations', $0.
``Sec. 20105. Notwithstanding section 101, the level for
each of the following accounts for Rural Development Programs
of the Department of Agriculture shall be as follows: `Rural
Development Salaries and Expenses', $160,349,000; `Rural
Business-Cooperative Service, Rural Cooperative Development
Grants', $26,718,000; and `Rural Utilities Service, Rural
Telephone Bank Program Account', $0.
``Sec. 20106. Notwithstanding section 101, the level for
`Rural Housing Service, Rental Assistance Program' shall be
$616,020,000, to remain available through September 30, 2008,
and the second and third provisos under such heading shall
not apply to funds appropriated by this division. Using funds
available in such account, the Secretary of Agriculture may
enter into or renew contracts under section 521(a)(2) of the
Housing Act of 1949 (42 U.S.C. 1490a(a)(2)) for two years.
Any unexpended balances remaining at the end of such two-year
agreements may be transferred and used for the purposes of
any debt reduction; maintenance, repair, or rehabilitation of
any existing projects; preservation; and rental assistance
activities authorized under title V of such Act (42 U.S.C.
1471 et seq.).
``Sec. 20107. Notwithstanding section 101, the level for
`Food and Nutrition Service, Child Nutrition Programs' shall
be $13,345,487,000, of which $7,614,414,000 is appropriated
funds and $5,731,073,000 shall be derived by transfer from
funds available under section 32 of the Act of August 24,
1935 (7 U.S.C. 612c).
``Sec. 20108. Notwithstanding section 101, the level for
each of the following accounts for Foreign Assistance and
Related Programs of the Department of Agriculture shall be as
follows: `Foreign Agricultural Service, Salaries and
Expenses', $155,422,000; `Foreign Agricultural Service,
Public Law 480 Title I Ocean Freight Differential Grants',
$0; and `Foreign Agricultural Service, Public Law 480 Title
II Grants', $1,214,711,000.
``Sec. 20109. Notwithstanding section 101, the level for
`Food and Drug Administration, Salaries and Expenses' shall
be $1,965,207,000, of which $352,200,000 shall be derived
from prescription drug user fees authorized by 21 U.S.C.
379h, shall be credited to this account and remain available
until expended, and shall not include any fees pursuant to 21
U.S.C. 379h(a)(2) and (a)(3) assessed for fiscal year 2008
but collected in fiscal year 2007, $43,726,000 shall be
derived from medical device user fees authorized by 21 U.S.C.
379j and shall be credited to this account and remain
available until expended, and $11,604,000 shall be derived
from animal drug user fees authorized by 21 U.S.C. 379j and
shall be credited to this account and remain available until
expended: Provided, That fees derived from prescription
drug, medical device, and animal drug assessments received
during fiscal year 2007, including any such fees assessed
prior to the current fiscal year but credited during the
current year, shall be subject to the fiscal year 2007
limitation: Provided further, That none of these funds shall
be used to develop, establish, or operate any program of user
fees authorized by 31 U.S.C. 9701: Provided further, That of
the total amount appropriated: (1) $453,180,000 shall be for
the Center for Food Safety and Applied Nutrition and related
field activities in the Office of Regulatory Affairs; (2)
$567,594,000 shall be for the Center for Drug Evaluation and
Research and related field activities in the Office of
Regulatory Affairs, of which not less than $34,900,000 shall
be for the Office of Generic Drugs; (3) $209,180,000 shall be
for the Center for Biologics Evaluation and Research and for
related field activities in the Office of Regulatory Affairs;
(4) $103,544,000 shall be for the Center for Veterinary
Medicine and for related field activities in the Office of
Regulatory Affairs; (5) $253,710,000 shall be for the Center
for Devices and Radiological Health and for related field
activities in the Office of Regulatory Affairs; (6)
$41,751,000 shall be for the National Center for
Toxicological Research; (7) $68,609,000 shall be for Rent and
Related activities, of which $25,552,000 is for relocation
expenses, other than the amounts paid to the General Services
Administration for rent; (8) $146,013,000 shall be for
payments to the General Services Administration for rent; and
(9) $121,626,000 shall be for other activities, including the
Office of the Commissioner, the Office of Management, the
Office of External Relations, the Office of Policy and
Planning, and central services for these offices.
``Sec. 20110. Notwithstanding section 101, the level for
`Food and Drug Administration, Buildings and Facilities'
shall be $4,950,000.
``Sec. 20111. Notwithstanding any other provision of this
division, the following provisions included in the
Agriculture, Rural Development, Food and Drug Administration,
and Related Agencies Appropriations Act, 2006 shall not apply
to funds appropriated by this division: the last proviso
under the heading `Common Computing Environment'; the
provisos under the heading `Economic Research Service'; the
third, fourth, sixth, and eighth through twelfth provisos
under the heading `Agricultural Research Service, Salaries
and Expenses'; the set-aside of funds under the heading
`Agricultural Marketing Service, Payments to States and
Possessions'; the set-aside of $753,252,000 under the heading
`Food Safety and Inspection Service' and the first three
provisos under such heading; the first proviso under the
heading `Natural Resources Conservation Service, Resource
Conservation and Development'; the set-aside of $5,600,000 in
the seventh proviso under the heading `Rural Development
Programs, Rural Community Advancement Program'; the first
proviso under the heading `Rural Development Salaries and
Expenses'; the second proviso in the second paragraph under
the heading `Rural Housing Service, Rural Housing Insurance
Fund Program Account'; the last paragraph under the heading
`Rural Business-Cooperative Service, Rural Economic
Development Loans Program Account'; the set-aside of
$2,500,000 under the heading `Rural Business-Cooperative
Service, Rural Cooperative Development Grants'; the proviso
under the heading `Rural Business-Cooperative Service, Rural
Empowerment Zones and Enterprise Communities Grants'; the
last paragraph under the heading `Rural Utilities Service,
Rural Telephone Bank Program Account'; the second proviso
under the heading `Food and Nutrition Service, Food Stamp
Program'; the first paragraph, including the proviso in such
paragraph, under the heading `Foreign Agricultural Service,
Public Law 480 Title I Direct Credit and Food for Progress
Program Account'; and the first four provisos under the
heading `Food and Drug Administration, Salaries and
Expenses'.
``Sec. 20112. The following provisions of the Agriculture,
Rural Development, Food and Drug Administration, and Related
Agencies Appropriations Act, 2006 shall be applied to funds
appropriated by this division by substituting `2007' and
`2008' for `2006' and `2007', respectively, each place they
appear: the second paragraph under the heading `Animal and
Plant Health Inspection Service, Salaries and Expenses'; the
availability of funds clause under the heading `Natural
Resources Conservation Service, Conservation Operations'; the
eighth proviso under the heading `Rural Development Programs,
Rural Community Advancement Program'; the first proviso in
the second paragraph under the heading `Rural Housing
Service, Rural Housing Insurance Fund Program Account'; the
proviso under the heading `Rural Housing Service, Mutual and
Self-Help Housing Grants'; the fourth proviso under the
heading `Rural Housing Service, Rural Housing Assistance
Grants'; the three availability of funds clauses under the
heading `Rural Business-Cooperative Service, Rural
Development Loan Fund Program Account'; the second proviso
under the heading `Food and Nutrition Service, Special
Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants, and
Children (WIC)'; section 719; section 734; and section 738.
``Sec. 20113. Section 704 of the Agriculture, Rural
Development, Food and Drug Administration, and Related
Agencies Appropriations Act, 2006 shall be applied to the
funds appropriated by this division by substituting `avian
influenza programs' for `low pathogen avian influenza
program'.
``Sec. 20114. The following sections of title VII of the
Agriculture, Rural Development, Food and Drug Administration,
and Related Agencies Appropriations Act, 2006 shall be
applied to funds appropriated by this division by
substituting $0 for the following dollar amounts: section
721, $2,500,000; section 723, $1,250,000; section 755,
$1,000,000; section 764, $650,000; section 766, $200,000;
section 767, $2,250,000; section 779, $6,000,000; section
790, $140,000, $400,000, $200,000, $500,000, and $350,000;
and section 791, $1,000,000.
``Sec. 20115. The following sections of title VII of the
Agriculture, Rural Development, Food and Drug Administration,
and Related Agencies Appropriations Act, 2006 shall not apply
for fiscal year 2007: section 726; paragraphs (1) and (2) of
section 754; section 768; section 785; and section 789.
[[Page H1074]]
``Sec. 20116. The following sections of title VII of the
Agriculture, Rural Development, Food and Drug Administration,
and Related Agencies Appropriations Act, 2006 authorized or
required certain actions by the Secretary of Agriculture that
have been performed before the date of the enactment of this
division and need not reoccur: section 761; section 770;
section 782; and section 783.
``Sec. 20117. Of the unobligated balances under section 32
of the Act of August 24, 1935 (7 U.S.C. 612c), $37,601,000 is
rescinded.
``Sec. 20118. Of the unobligated balances of funds
provided pursuant to section 16(h)(1)(A) of the Food Stamp
Act of 1977 (7 U.S.C. 2025(h)(1)(A)), $11,200,000 is
rescinded.
``Sec. 20119. Of the funds derived from interest on the
cushion of credit payments, as authorized by section 313 of
the Rural Electrification Act of 1936 (7 U.S.C. 940c),
$74,000,000 shall not be obligated and $74,000,000 is
rescinded.
``Sec. 20120. In addition to amounts otherwise
appropriated or made available by this division, $31,000,000
is appropriated to the Secretary of Agriculture for the costs
of loan and loan guarantees under the Rural Development
Mission Area to ensure that the fiscal year 2006 program
levels for such loan and loan guarantee programs are
maintained for fiscal year 2007. The Secretary may transfer
funds, to the extent practicable, among loan and loan
guarantee programs within the Rural Development Mission Area
to ensure that the fiscal year 2006 program levels for such
programs and activities are maintained during fiscal year
2007.
``Sec. 20121. For the programs and activities administered
by the Secretary of Agriculture under the Farm Service
Agency, Agricultural Credit Insurance Fund, the Secretary may
transfer funds made available by this division among programs
and activities within such Fund: Provided, That the fiscal
year 2006 program levels for such programs and activities are
at least maintained.
``Sec. 20122. With respect to any loan or loan guarantee
program administered by the Secretary of Agriculture that has
a negative credit subsidy score for fiscal year 2007, the
program level for the loan or loan guarantee program, for the
purposes of the Federal Credit Reform Act of 1990, shall be
the program level established pursuant to such Act for fiscal
year 2006.
``Sec. 20123. The Secretary of Agriculture shall continue
the Water and Waste Systems Direct Loan Program and the loan
guarantee programs of the Agricultural Credit Insurance Fund
under the authority and conditions (including the borrower's
interest rate and fees as of September 1, 2006) provided by
the Agriculture, Rural Development, Food and Drug
Administration, and Related Agencies Appropriations Act,
2006.
``Sec. 20124. Of the appropriations available for payments
for the nutrition and family education program for low-income
areas under section 3(d) of the Smith-Lever Act (7 U.S.C.
343(d)), if the payment allocation pursuant to section
1425(c) of the National Agricultural Research, Extension, and
Teaching Policy Act of 1977 (7 U.S.C. 3175(c)) would be less
than $100,000 for any institution eligible under section
3(d)(2) of the Smith-Lever Act, the Secretary of Agriculture
shall adjust payment allocations under section 1425(c) of the
National Agricultural Research, Extension, and Teaching
Policy Act of 1977 to ensure that each institution receives a
payment of not less than $100,000.
``CHAPTER 2--DEPARTMENT OF DEFENSE
``Sec. 20201. For purposes of title I, the appropriations
Acts listed in section 101(a) shall be deemed to include the
Department of Defense Appropriations Act, 2006 for purposes
of activities of the Department of Defense under the
`Environmental Restoration' accounts.
``Sec. 20202. In addition to amounts otherwise provided in
this division or any other Act, amounts are appropriated for
certain military activities of the Department of Defense for
the fiscal year ending September 30, 2007, as follows:
``(1) For an additional amount for `Military Personnel,
Army', $3,902,556,000, to be available for the basic
allowance for housing for members of the Army on active duty.
``(2) For an additional amount for `Military Personnel,
Navy', $3,726,778,000, to be available for the basic
allowance for housing for members of the Navy on active duty.
``(3) For an additional amount for `Military Personnel,
Marine Corps', $1,241,965,000, to be available for the basic
allowance for housing for members of the Marine Corps on
active duty.
``(4) For an additional amount for `Military Personnel, Air
Force', $3,278,835,000, to be available for the basic
allowance for housing for members of the Air Force on active
duty.
``(5) For an additional amount for `Reserve Personnel,
Army', $321,642,000, to be available for the basic allowance
for housing for members of the Army Reserve on active duty.
``(6) For an additional amount for `Reserve Personnel,
Navy', $204,115,000, to be available for the basic allowance
for housing for members of the Navy Reserve on active duty.
``(7) For an additional amount for `Reserve Personnel,
Marine Corps', $43,082,000, to be available for the basic
allowance for housing for members of the Marine Corps Reserve
on active duty.
``(8) For an additional amount for `Reserve Personnel, Air
Force', $76,218,000, to be available for the basic allowance
for housing for members of the Air Force Reserve on active
duty.
``(9) For an additional amount for `National Guard
Personnel, Army', $457,226,000, to be available for the basic
allowance for housing for members of the Army National Guard
on active duty.
``(10) For an additional amount for `National Guard
Personnel, Air Force', $258,000,000, to be available for the
basic allowance for housing for members of the Air National
Guard on active duty.
``(11) For an additional amount for `Operation and
Maintenance, Army', $1,810,774,000, to be available for
facilities sustainment, restoration and modernization.
``(12) For an additional amount for `Operation and
Maintenance, Navy', $1,202,313,000, to be available for
facilities sustainment, restoration and modernization.
``(13) For an additional amount for `Operation and
Maintenance, Marine Corps', $473,141,000, to be available for
facilities sustainment, restoration and modernization.
``(14) For an additional amount for `Operation and
Maintenance, Air Force', $1,684,019,000, to be available for
facilities sustainment, restoration and modernization.
``(15) For an additional amount for `Operation and
Maintenance, Defense-Wide', $86,386,000, to be available for
facilities sustainment, restoration and modernization.
``(16) For an additional amount for `Operation and
Maintenance, Army Reserve', $202,326,000, to be available for
facilities sustainment, restoration and modernization.
``(17) For an additional amount for `Operation and
Maintenance, Navy Reserve', $52,136,000, to be available for
facilities sustainment, restoration and modernization.
``(18) For an additional amount for `Operation and
Maintenance, Marine Corps Reserve', $10,004,000, to be
available for facilities sustainment, restoration and
modernization.
``(19) For an additional amount for `Operation and
Maintenance, Air Force Reserve', $53,850,000, to be available
for facilities sustainment, restoration and modernization.
``(20) For an additional amount for `Operation and
Maintenance, Army National Guard', $387,579,000, to be
available for facilities sustainment, restoration and
modernization.
``(21) For an additional amount for `Operation and
Maintenance, Air National Guard', $177,993,000, to be
available for facilities sustainment, restoration and
modernization.
``Sec. 20203. Notwithstanding any other provision of law
or of this division, amounts are appropriated for the Defense
Health Program of the Department of Defense, as follows:
``(1) For expenses, not otherwise provided for, for medical
and health care programs of the Department of Defense, as
authorized by law, $21,217,000,000, of which $20,494,000,000
shall be for Operation and Maintenance, of which not to
exceed 2 percent shall remain available until September 30,
2008, and of which up to $10,887,784,000 may be available for
contracts entered into under the TRICARE program; of which
$375,000,000, to remain available for obligation until
September 30, 2009, shall be for Procurement; and of which
$348,000,000, to remain available for obligation until
September 30, 2008, shall be for Research, Development, Test
and Evaluation.
``(2) Of the amount made available in this section for
Research, Development, Test and Evaluation, $217,500,000
shall be made available only for peer reviewed cancer
research activities, of which $127,500,000 shall be for
breast cancer research activities; of which $10,000,000 shall
be for ovarian cancer research activities; and of which
$80,000,000 shall be for prostate cancer research activities.
``(3) Amounts made available in this section are subject to
the terms and conditions set forth in the Department of
Defense Appropriations Act, 2007 (Public Law 109-289).
``CHAPTER 3--ENERGY AND WATER DEVELOPMENT
``Sec. 20301. Notwithstanding section 101, the level for
each of the following accounts shall be as follows: `Corps of
Engineers, Construction', $2,334,440,000; and `Corps of
Engineers, General Expenses', $166,300,000.
``Sec. 20302. The limitation concerning total project
costs in section 902 of the Water Resources Development Act
of 1986, as amended (33 U.S.C. 2280), shall not apply during
fiscal year 2007 to any project that received funds provided
in this division.
``Sec. 20303. All of the provisos under the heading `Corps
of Engineers--Civil, Department of Army, Investigations' in
Public Law 109-103 shall not apply to funds appropriated by
this division.
``Sec. 20304. All of the provisos under the heading `Corps
of Engineers--Civil, Department of Army, Construction' in
Public Law 109-103 shall not apply to funds appropriated by
this division.
``Sec. 20305. All of the provisos under the heading `Corps
of Engineers--Civil, Department of Army, Flood Control,
Mississippi River and Tributaries, Arkansas, Illinois,
Kentucky, Louisiana, Mississippi, Missouri, and Tennessee' in
Public Law 109-103 shall not apply to funds appropriated by
this division.
``Sec. 20306. All of the provisos under the heading `Corps
of Engineers--Civil, Department of Army, Operation and
Maintenance' in Public Law 109-103 shall not apply to funds
appropriated by this division.
``Sec. 20307. The last proviso under the heading `Corps of
Engineers--Civil, Department of Army, General Expenses' in
Public
[[Page H1075]]
Law 109-103 shall not apply to funds appropriated by this
division.
``Sec. 20308. Section 135 of the Energy and Water
Development Appropriations Act, 2006 (Public Law 109-103)
shall not apply to funds appropriated by this division.
``Sec. 20309. The last proviso under the heading
`Department of the Interior, Bureau of Reclamation, Water and
Related Resources' in Public Law 109-103 shall not apply to
funds appropriated by this division.
``Sec. 20310. The last proviso under the heading
`Department of the Interior, Bureau of Reclamation,
California Bay-Delta Restoration' in Public Law 109-103 shall
not apply to funds appropriated by this division.
``Sec. 20311. Section 208 of the Energy and Water
Development Appropriations Act, 2006 (Public Law 109-103)
shall not apply to funds appropriated by this division.
``Sec. 20312. Section 8 of the Water Desalination Act of
1996 (42 U.S.C. 10301 note) is amended--
``(1) in subsection (a) by striking `2006' and inserting
`2011'; and
``(2) in subsection (b) by striking `2006' and inserting
`2011'.
``Sec. 20313. Notwithstanding section 101, the level for
each of the following accounts shall be as follows:
`Department of Energy, Elk Hills School Lands Fund', $0;
`Department of Energy, Northeast Home Heating Oil Reserve',
$5,000,000; `Department of Energy, Energy Information
Administration', $90,314,000; `Department of Energy,
Science', $3,796,393,000; `Department of Energy, Nuclear
Waste Disposal', $99,000,000; `Department of Energy, National
Nuclear Security Administration, Weapons Activities',
$6,275,103,000; and `Department of Energy, Defense
Environmental Cleanup', $5,730,448,000.
``Sec. 20314. Notwithstanding section 101, the level for
`Department of Energy, Energy Supply and Conservation' shall
be $2,153,627,000, of which not less than $1,473,844,000
shall be for Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy
Resources.
``Sec. 20315. Notwithstanding section 101, the level for
salaries and expenses of the Department of Energy necessary
for departmental administration in carrying out the purposes
of the Department of Energy Organization Act (42 U.S.C. 7101
et seq.), including the hire of passenger motor vehicles and
official reception and representation expenses not to exceed
$35,000, shall be $275,789,000, to remain available until
expended, of which $43,075,000 shall be available for cyber-
security activities and of which $7,000,000 shall be
available for necessary administrative expenses of the loan
guarantee program authorized in title XVII of the Energy
Policy Act of 2005, plus such additional amounts as necessary
to cover increases in the estimated amount of cost of work
for others notwithstanding the provisions of the Anti-
Deficiency Act (31 U.S.C. 1511 et seq.): Provided, That such
increases in cost of work are offset by revenue increases of
the same or greater amount, to remain available until
expended: Provided further, That moneys received by the
Department for miscellaneous revenues estimated to total
$123,000,000 in fiscal year 2007 may be retained and used for
operating expenses within this account, and may remain
available until expended, as authorized by section 201 of
Public Law 95-238, notwithstanding the provisions of section
3302 of title 31, United States Code: Provided further, That
the sum herein appropriated shall be reduced by the amount of
miscellaneous revenues received during 2007, and any related
appropriated receipt account balances remaining from prior
years' miscellaneous revenues, so as to result in a final
fiscal year 2007 appropriation from the general fund
estimated at not more than $152,789,000.
``Sec. 20316. Notwithstanding section 101, the level for
`Department of Energy, National Nuclear Security
Administration, Defense Nuclear Nonproliferation' shall be
$1,683,339,000, of which $472,730,000 shall be for
International Nuclear Material Protection and Cooperation and
of which $115,495,000 shall be for Global Threat Reduction
Initiative.
``Sec. 20317. Notwithstanding section 101, the level for
necessary expenses of the Nuclear Regulatory Commission in
carrying out the purposes of the Energy Reorganization Act of
1974 and the Atomic Energy Act of 1954, including official
representation expenses (not to exceed $15,000), and
including purchase of promotional items for use in the
recruitment of individuals for employment, shall be
$813,300,000, to remain available until expended: Provided,
That of the amount appropriated herein, $45,700,000 shall be
derived from the Nuclear Waste Fund: Provided further, That
revenues from licensing fees, inspection services, and other
services and collections estimated at $659,055,000 in fiscal
year 2007 shall be retained and used for necessary salaries
and expenses in this account, notwithstanding section 3302 of
title 31, United States Code, and shall remain available
until expended: Provided further, That the sum herein
appropriated shall be reduced by the amount of revenues
received during fiscal year 2007 so as to result in a final
fiscal year 2007 appropriation estimated at not more than
$154,245,000.
``Sec. 20318. The Secretary of Energy may not make
available any of the funds provided by this division or
previous appropriations Acts for construction activities for
Project 99-D-143, mixed oxide fuel fabrication facility,
Savannah River Site, South Carolina, until August 1, 2007.
``Sec. 20319. Section 302 of Public Law 102-377 is
repealed.
``Sec. 20320. (a) Notwithstanding section 101, subject to
the Federal Credit Reform Act of 1990, as amended,
commitments to guarantee loans under title XVII of the Energy
Policy Act of 2005 shall not exceed a total principal amount,
any part of which is to be guaranteed, of $4,000,000,000:
Provided, That there are appropriated for the cost of the
guaranteed loans such sums as are hereafter derived from
amounts received from borrowers pursuant to section
1702(b)(2) of that Act, to remain available until expended:
Provided further, That the source of payments received from
borrowers for the subsidy cost shall not be a loan or other
debt obligation that is made or guaranteed by the Federal
government. In addition, fees collected pursuant to section
1702(h) in fiscal year 2007 shall be credited as offsetting
collections to the Departmental Administration account for
administrative expenses of the Loan Guarantee Program:
Provided further, That the sum appropriated for
administrative expenses for the Loan Guarantee Program shall
be reduced by the amount of fees received during fiscal year
2007: Provided further, That any fees collected under section
1702(h) in excess of the amount appropriated for
administrative expenses shall not be available until
appropriated.
``(b) No loan guarantees may be awarded under title XVII of
the Energy Policy Act of 2005 until final regulations are
issued that include--
``(1) programmatic, technical, and financial factors the
Secretary will use to select projects for loan guarantees;
``(2) policies and procedures for selecting and monitoring
lenders and loan performance; and
``(3) any other policies, procedures, or information
necessary to implement title XVII of the Energy Policy Act of
2005.
``(c) The Secretary of Energy shall enter into an
arrangement with an independent auditor for annual
evaluations of the program under title XVII of the Energy
Policy Act of 2005. In addition to the independent audit, the
Comptroller General shall conduct an annual review of the
Department's execution of the program under title XVII of the
Energy Policy Act of 2005. The results of the independent
audit and the Comptroller General's review shall be provided
directly to the Committees on Appropriations of the House of
Representatives and the Senate.
``(d) The Secretary of Energy shall promulgate final
regulations for loan guarantees under title XVII of the
Energy Policy Act of 2005 within 6 months of enactment of
this division.
``(e) Not later than 120 days after the date of enactment
of this division, and annually thereafter, the Secretary of
Energy shall transmit to the Committees on Appropriations of
the House of Representatives and the Senate a report
containing a summary of all activities under title XVII of
the Energy Policy Act of 2005, beginning in fiscal year 2007,
with a listing of responses to loan guarantee solicitations
under such title, describing the technologies, amount of loan
guarantee sought, and the applicants' assessment of risk.
``Sec. 20321. For fiscal year 2007, except as otherwise
provided by law in effect as of the date of enactment of this
division or unless a rate is specifically set by an Act of
Congress thereafter, the Administrators of the Southeastern
Power Administration, the Southwestern Power Administration,
the Western Power Administration, shall use the `yield' rate
in computing interest during Construction and interest on the
unpaid balance of the cost of Federal power facilities. The
yield rate shall be defined as the average yield during the
preceding fiscal year on interest-bearing marketable
securities of the United States which, at the time the
computation is made, have terms of 15 years or more remaining
to maturity.
``Sec. 20322. The second proviso under the heading
`Department of Energy, Energy Programs, Nuclear Waste
Disposal' in title III of the Energy and Water Development
Appropriations Act, 2006 (Public Law 109-103) shall not apply
to funds appropriated by this division.
``Sec. 20323. The provisos under the heading `Atomic
Energy Defense Activities, National Nuclear Security
Administration, Weapons Activities' in title III of the
Energy and Water Development Appropriations Act, 2006 (Public
Law 109-103) shall not apply to funds appropriated by this
division.
``Sec. 20324. The second proviso under the heading `Power
Marketing Administrations, Construction, Rehabilitation,
Operation and Maintenance, Western Area Power Administration'
in title III of the Energy and Water Development
Appropriations Act, 2006 (Public Law 109-103) shall not apply
to funds appropriated by this division.
``Sec. 20325. Title III of the Energy and Water
Development Appropriations Act, 2006 (Public Law 109-103) is
amended by striking sections 310 and 312.
``Sec. 20326. Section 14704 of title 40, United States
Code, is amended by striking `October 1, 2006' and inserting
`October 1, 2007'.
``CHAPTER 4--FOREIGN OPERATIONS, EXPORT FINANCING, AND RELATED PROGRAMS
``Sec. 20401. Notwithstanding section 101, the level for
each of the following accounts shall be as follows: `Export
and Investment Assistance, Export-Import Bank of the United
States, Subsidy Appropriation', $26,382,000; `Bilateral
Economic Assistance, Funds Appropriated to the President,
Other Bilateral Economic Assistance, Assistance for Eastern
Europe and the Baltic States', $273,900,000; `Bilateral
Economic Assistance,
[[Page H1076]]
Funds Appropriated to the President, Other Bilateral Economic
Assistance, Assistance for the Independent States of the
Former Soviet Union', $452,000,000; `Bilateral Economic
Assistance, Department of State, Andean Counterdrug
Initiative', $721,500,000; `Bilateral Economic Assistance,
Department of State, Migration and Refugee Assistance',
$832,900,000; `Bilateral Economic Assistance, Department of
State, United States Emergency Refugee and Migration
Assistance Fund', $55,000,000; `Military Assistance, Funds
Appropriated to the President, Foreign Military Financing
Program', $4,550,800,000, of which not less than
$2,340,000,000 shall be available for grants only for Israel
and $1,300,000,000 shall be available for grants only for
Egypt; and `Military Assistance, Funds Appropriated to the
President, Peacekeeping Operations', $223,250,000, of which
not less than $50,000,000 should be provided for peacekeeping
operations in Sudan: Provided, That the number in the third
proviso under the heading `Military Assistance, Funds
Appropriated to the President, Foreign Military Financing
Program' in the Foreign Operations, Export Financing, and
Related Programs Appropriations Act, 2006 (Public Law 109-
102) shall be deemed to be $610,000,000 for the purpose of
applying funds appropriated under such heading by this
division.
``Sec. 20402. Notwithstanding section 101, the level for
`Bilateral Economic Assistance, Funds Appropriated to the
President, Other Bilateral Economic Assistance, Economic
Support Fund' shall be $2,455,010,000: Provided, That the
number in the first proviso under the heading `Other
Bilateral Economic Assistance, Economic Support Fund' in the
Foreign Operations, Export Financing, and Related Programs
Appropriations Act, 2006 (Public Law 109-102) shall be deemed
to be $120,000,000 for the purpose of applying funds
appropriated under such heading by this division: Provided
further, That the number in the second proviso under the
heading `Other Bilateral Economic Assistance, Economic
Support Fund' in the Foreign Operations, Export Financing,
and Related Programs Appropriations Act, 2006 (Public Law
109-102) shall be deemed to be $455,000,000 for the purpose
of applying funds appropriated under such heading by this
division: Provided further, That up to $50,000,000 shall be
made available for assistance for the West Bank and Gaza and
up to $50,000,000 shall be made available for the Middle East
Partnership Initiative: Provided further, That not less than
$5,000,000 shall be made available for the fund established
by section 2108 of Public Law 109-13: Provided further, That
the fourteenth and twentieth provisos under the heading
`Bilateral Economic Assistance, Funds Appropriated to the
President, Other Bilateral Economic Assistance, Economic
Support Fund' in Public Law 109-102 shall not apply to funds
made available under this division.
``Sec. 20403. Notwithstanding section 101, the level for
each of the following accounts shall be as follows:
`Bilateral Economic Assistance, Department of State, Global
HIV/AIDS Initiative', $3,246,500,000, of which $377,500,000
shall be made available, notwithstanding any other provision
of law, except for the United States Leadership Against HIV/
AIDS, Tuberculosis, and Malaria Act of 2003 (Public Law 108-
25) for a United States contribution to the Global Fund to
Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria; and `Bilateral Economic
Assistance, Funds Appropriated to the President, United
States Agency for International Development, Child Survival
and Health Programs Fund', $1,718,150,000, of which
$248,000,000 shall be made available for programs and
activities to combat malaria.
``Sec. 20404. Notwithstanding section 101, the level for
each of the following accounts shall be $0: `Multilateral
Economic Assistance, Funds Appropriated to the President,
Contribution to the Multilateral Investment Guarantee
Agency'; `Multilateral Economic Assistance, Funds
Appropriated to the President, Contribution to the Inter-
American Investment Corporation'; and `Multilateral Economic
Assistance, Funds Appropriated to the President, Contribution
to the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development'.
``Sec. 20405. (a) Of the unobligated balances available
from funds appropriated under the heading `Funds Appropriated
to the President, International Financial Institutions,
Contribution to the International Development Association' in
the Foreign Operations, Export Financing, and Related
Programs Appropriations Act, 2006 (Public Law 109-102),
$31,350,000 is rescinded.
``(b) Of the unobligated balances available from funds
appropriated under the heading `Bilateral Economic
Assistance, Funds Appropriated to the President, Other
Bilateral Economic Assistance, Economic Support Fund',
$200,000,000 is rescinded: Provided, That such amounts shall
be derived only from funds not yet expended for cash transfer
assistance.
``Sec. 20406. Notwithstanding any other provision of this
division, the eighth proviso under the heading `Bilateral
Economic Assistance, Funds Appropriated to the President,
United States Agency for International Development,
Development Assistance' in the Foreign Operations, Export
Financing, and Related Programs Appropriations Act, 2006
(Public Law 109-102) shall not apply to funds appropriated by
this division.
``Sec. 20407. Section 599D of the Foreign Operations,
Export Financing, and Related Programs Appropriations Act,
2006 (Public Law 109-102) is amended by striking `certifies'
and all that follows and inserting the following: `reports to
the appropriate congressional committees on the extent to
which the World Bank has completed the following:
`` `(1) World Bank procurement guidelines have been applied
to all procurement financed in whole or in part by a loan
from the World Bank or a credit agreement or grant from the
International Development Association (IDA).
`` `(2) The World Bank proposal ``Increasing the Use of
Country Systems in Procurement'' dated March 2005 has been
withdrawn.
`` `(3) The World Bank maintains a strong central
procurement office staffed with senior experts who are
designated to address commercial concerns, questions, and
complaints regarding procurement procedures and payments
under IDA and World Bank projects.
`` `(4) Thresholds for international competitive bidding
have been established to maximize international competitive
bidding in accordance with sound procurement practices,
including transparency, competition, and cost-effective
results for the Borrowers.
`` `(5) All tenders under the World Bank's national
competitive bidding provisions are subject to the same
advertisement requirements as tenders under international
competitive bidding.
`` `(6) Loan agreements between the World Bank and the
Borrowers have been made public.'.
``Sec. 20408. Section 523 of the Foreign Operations,
Export Financing, and Related Programs Appropriations Act,
2006 (Public Law 109-102) shall be applied to funds made
available under this division by substituting
`$1,022,086,000' for the first dollar amount.
``Sec. 20409. Notwithstanding any other provision of this
division, the following provisions in the Foreign Operations,
Export Financing, and Related Programs Appropriations Act,
2006 (Public Law 109-102) shall not apply to funds
appropriated by this division: the proviso in subsection (a)
under the heading `Bilateral Economic Assistance, Funds
Appropriated to the President, Other Bilateral Economic
Assistance, Assistance for Eastern Europe and the Baltic
States'; the eleventh proviso under the heading `Bilateral
Economic Assistance, Funds Appropriated to the President,
United States Agency for International Development,
Development Assistance'; the third proviso under the heading
`Bilateral Economic Assistance, Department of State,
Migration and Refugee Assistance'; subsection (d) under the
heading `Bilateral Economic Assistance, Funds Appropriated to
the President, Other Bilateral Economic Assistance,
Assistance for the Independent States of the Former Soviet
Union'; the fourth proviso of section 522; subsections (a)
and (c) of section 554; and the first proviso of section 593.
``Sec. 20410. The Inter-American Development Bank Act (22
U.S.C. 283--283z-10) is amended by adding at the end the
following:
`` `SEC. 39. FIRST REPLENISHMENT OF THE RESOURCES OF THE
ENTERPRISE FOR THE AMERICAS MULTILATERAL
INVESTMENT FUND.
`` `(a) Contribution Authority.--
`` `(1) In general.--The Secretary of the Treasury may
contribute on behalf of the United States $150,000,000 to the
first replenishment of the resources of the Enterprise for
the Americas Multilateral Investment Fund.
`` `(2) Subject to appropriations.--The authority provided
by paragraph (1) may be exercised only to the extent and in
the amounts provided for in advance in appropriations Acts.
`` `(b) Limitations on Authorization of Appropriations.--
For the United States contribution authorized by subsection
(a), there are authorized to be appropriated not more than
$150,000,000, without fiscal year limitation, for payment by
the Secretary of the Treasury.'.
``Sec. 20411. The authority provided by section
801(b)(1)(ii) of Public Law 106-429 shall apply to fiscal
year 2007.
``Sec. 20412. (a) Notwithstanding any other provision of
this division, section 534(m) of the Foreign Operations,
Export Financing, and Related Programs Appropriations Act,
2006 (Public Law 109-102) shall not apply to funds and
authorities provided under this division.
``(b) The Foreign Operations, Export Financing, and Related
Programs Appropriations Act, 1990 (Public Law 101-167) is
amended--
``(1) in section 599D (8 U.S.C. 1157 note)--
``(A) in subsection (b)(3), by striking `and 2006' and
inserting `2006, and 2007'; and
``(B) in subsection (e), by striking `2006' each place it
appears and inserting `2007'; and
``(2) in section 599E (8 U.S.C. 1255 note), in subsection
(b)(2), by striking `2006' and inserting `2007'.
``Sec. 20413. Notwithstanding section 653(b) of the
Foreign Assistance Act of 1961 (22 U.S.C. 2413), the
President shall transmit to Congress the report required
under section 653(a) of that Act with respect to the
provision of funds appropriated by this division: Provided,
That such report shall include a comparison of amounts, by
category of assistance, provided or intended to be provided
from funds appropriated for fiscal years 2006 and 2007, for
each country and international organization.
``Sec. 20414. The seventh proviso under the heading
`Bilateral Economic Assistance, Funds Appropriated to the
President, United States Agency for International
Development, Child Survival and Health Programs
[[Page H1077]]
Fund' of the Foreign Operations, Export Financing, and
Related Programs Appropriations Act, 2006 (Public Law 109-
102) shall be applied to funds made available under this
division by substituting `The GAVI Fund' for `The Vaccine
Fund'.
``Sec. 20415. Section 501(i) of H.R. 3425, as enacted into
law by section l000(a)(5) of division B of Public Law 106-113
(appendix E, 113 Stat. 1501A-313), as amended by section
591(b) of division D of Public Law 108-447 (118 Stat. 3037),
shall apply to fiscal year 2007.
``CHAPTER 5--DEPARTMENT OF THE INTERIOR, ENVIRONMENT, AND RELATED
AGENCIES
``Sec. 20501. Notwithstanding section 101, the level for
each of the following accounts shall be as follows: `Bureau
of Land Management, Management of Lands and Resources',
$862,632,000; `United States Fish and Wildlife Service,
Resource Management', $1,009,037,000; `National Park Service,
Historic Preservation Fund', $55,663,000; `United States
Geological Survey, Surveys, Investigations, and Research',
$977,675,000; and ``Environmental Protection Agency,
Hazardous Substance Superfund'', $1,251,574,000.
``Sec. 20502. Notwithstanding section 101, the level for
`National Park Service, Operation of the National Park
Service', shall be $1,758,415,000, of which not to exceed
$5,000,000 may be transferred to the United States Park
Police.
``Sec. 20503. Notwithstanding section 101, under `National
Park Service, Construction', the designations under Public
Law 109-54 of specific amounts and sources of funding for
modified water deliveries and the national historic landmark
shall not apply.
``Sec. 20504. The contract authority provided for fiscal
year 2007 under the Land and Water Conservation Fund Act of
1965 (16 U.S.C. 4601-10a) is rescinded.
``Sec. 20505. Notwithstanding section 101, the level for
`Bureau of Indian Affairs, Indian Land and Water Claim
Settlements and Miscellaneous Payments to Indians', shall be
$42,000,000 for payments required for settlements approved by
Congress or a court of competent jurisdiction.
``Sec. 20506. Notwithstanding section 101, the `Minerals
Management Service, Royalty and Offshore Minerals Management'
shall credit an amount not to exceed $128,730,000 under the
same terms and conditions of the credit to said account as in
Public Law 109-54. To the extent $128,730,000 in addition to
receipts are not realized from sources of receipts stated
above, the amount needed to reach $128,730,000 shall be
credited to this appropriation from receipts resulting from
rental rates for Outer Continental Shelf leases in effect
before August 5, 1993.
``Sec. 20507. Notwithstanding section 101, within the
amounts made available under `Environmental Protection
Agency, State and Tribal Assistance Grants', $1,083,817,000,
shall be for making capitalization grants for the Clean Water
State Revolving Funds under title VI of the Federal Water
Pollution Control Act, as amended, and no funds shall be
available for making special project grants for the
construction of drinking water, wastewater, and storm water
infrastructure and for water quality protection in accordance
with the terms and conditions specified for such grants in
the joint explanatory statement of the mangers in Conference
Report 109-188.
``Sec. 20508. Notwithstanding section 101, for `Forest
Service, State and Private Forestry', the $1,000,000
specified in the second proviso and the $1,500,000 specified
in the third proviso in Public Law 109-54 are not required.
``Sec. 20509. Notwithstanding section 101, the level for
`Forest Service, National Forest System', shall be
$1,445,646,000, except that the $5,000,000 specified as an
additional regional allocation is not required.
``Sec. 20510. Notwithstanding section 101, the level for
`Forest Service, Wildland Fire Management', shall be
$1,816,091,000 of which the allocation provided for fire
suppression operations shall be $741,477,000; the allocation
for hazardous fuels reduction shall be $298,828,000; and
other funding allocations and terms and conditions shall
follow Public Law 109-54.
``Sec. 20511. Notwithstanding section 101, of the level
for `Forest Service, Capital Improvement and Maintenance',
the $3,000,000 specified in the third proviso is not
required.
``Sec. 20512. Notwithstanding section 101, the level for
`Indian Health Service, Indian Health Services', shall be
$2,817,099,000 and the $15,000,000 allocation of funding
under the eleventh proviso shall not be required.
``Sec. 20513. Notwithstanding section 101, the level for
`Smithsonian Institution, Salaries and Expenses' shall be
$533,218,000, except that current terms and conditions shall
not be interpreted to require a specific grant for the
Council of American Overseas Research Centers or for the
reopening of the Patent Office Building.
``Sec. 20514. Notwithstanding section 101, no additional
funding is made available by this division for fiscal year
2007 based on the terms of section 134 and section 437 of
Public Law 109-54.
``Sec. 20515. Notwithstanding section 101, the level for
`Bureau of Indian Affairs, Operation of Indian Programs'
shall be $1,984,190,000, of which not less than $75,477,000
is for post-secondary education programs.
``Sec. 20516. The rule referenced in section 126 of Public
Law 109-54 shall continue in effect for the 2006-2007 winter
use season.
``Sec. 20517. Section 123 of Public Law 109-54 is amended
by striking `9' in the first sentence and inserting `10'.
``Sec. 20518. For fiscal year 2007, the Minerals
Management Service may retain 3 percent of the amounts
disbursed under section 31(b)(1) of the Coastal Impact
Assistance Program, authorized by section 31 of the Outer
Continental Shelf Lands Act, as amended (43 U.S.C. 1456(a)),
for administrative costs, to remain available until expended.
``Sec. 20519. Of the funds made available in section
8098(b) of Public Law 108-287, to construct a wildfire
management training facility, $7,400,000 shall be transferred
not later than 15 days after the date of the enactment of the
Continuing Appropriations Resolution, 2007, to the ``Forest
Service, Wildland Fire Management'' account and shall be
available for hazardous fuels reduction, hazard mitigation,
and rehabilitation activities of the Forest Service.
``Sec. 20520. Section 337 of division E of Public Law 108-
447 is amended by striking `2006' and inserting `2007'.
``Sec. 20521. No funds appropriated or otherwise made
available to the Department of the Interior may be used, in
relation to any proposal to store water for the purpose of
export, for approval of any right-of-way or similar
authorization on the Mojave National Preserve or lands
managed by the Needles Field Office of the Bureau of Land
Management or for carrying out any activities associated with
such right-of-way or similar approval.
``CHAPTER 6--DEPARTMENTS OF LABOR, HEALTH AND HUMAN SERVICES, AND
EDUCATION, AND RELATED AGENCIES
``Sec. 20601. (a)(1) Notwithstanding section 101, the level
for `Employment and Training Administration, Training and
Employment Services' shall be $2,670,730,000 plus
reimbursements.
``(2) Of the amount provided in paragraph (1)--
``(A) $1,672,810,000 shall be available for obligation for
the period July 1, 2007, through June 30, 2008, of which (i)
$341,811,000 shall be for dislocated worker employment and
training activities; (ii) $70,092,000 shall be for the
dislocated workers assistance national reserve; (iii)
$79,752,000 shall be for migrant and seasonal farmworkers,
including $74,302,000 for formula grants, $4,950,000 for
migrant and seasonal housing (of which not less than 70
percent shall be for permanent housing), and $500,000 for
other discretionary purposes; (iv) $878,538,000 shall be for
Job Corps operations; (v) $14,700,000 shall be for carrying
out pilots, demonstrations, and research activities
authorized by section 171(d) of the Workforce Investment Act
of 1998; (vi) $49,104,000 shall be for Responsible
Reintegration of Youthful Offenders; (vii) $4,921,000 shall
be for Evaluation; and (viii) not less than $1,000,000 shall
be for carrying out the Women in Apprenticeship and
Nontraditional Occupations Act (29 U.S.C. 2501 et seq.);
``(B) $990,000,000 shall be available for obligation for
the period April 1, 2007, through June 30, 2008, for youth
activities, of which $49,500,000 shall be available for the
Youthbuild Program; and
``(C) $7,920,000 shall be available for obligation for the
period July 1, 2007, through June 30, 2010, for necessary
expenses of construction, rehabilitation and acquisition of
Job Corps centers.
``(3) The Secretary of Labor shall award the following
grants on a competitive basis: (A) Community College
Initiative grants or Community-Based Job Training Grants
awarded from amounts provided for such purpose under section
109 of this division and under the Department of Labor
Appropriations Act, 2006; and (B) grants for job training for
employment in high growth industries awarded during fiscal
year 2007 under section 414(c) of the American
Competitiveness and Workforce Improvement Act of 1998.
``(4) None of the funds made available in this division or
any other Act shall be available to finalize or implement any
proposed regulation under the Workforce Investment Act of
1998, Wagner-Peyser Act of 1933, or the Trade Adjustment
Assistance Reform Act of 2002 until such time as legislation
reauthorizing the Workforce Investment Act of 1998 and the
Trade Adjustment Assistance Reform Act of 2002 is enacted.
``(b) Notwithstanding section 101, the level for
`Employment and Training Administration, Program
Administration' shall be $116,702,000 (together with not to
exceed $82,049,000, which may be expended from the Employment
Security Administration Account in the Unemployment Trust
Fund), of which $28,578,000 shall be for necessary expenses
for the Office of Job Corps.
``(c) None of the funds made available in this division or
under the Departments of Labor, Health and Human Services,
and Education, and Related Agencies Appropriations Act, 2006
shall be used to reduce Job Corps total student training
slots below 44,491 in program year 2006 or program year 2007.
``(d) Of the funds available under the heading `Employment
and Training Administration, Training and Employment
Services' in the Department of Labor Appropriations Act, 2006
for the Responsible Reintegration of Youthful Offenders,
$25,000,000 shall be used for grants to local educational
agencies to discourage youth in high-crime urban areas from
involvement in violent crime.
``(e) Notwithstanding section 101, the level for
`Employment and Training Administration, Community Service
Employment for Older Americans' shall be $483,611,000.
``(f) Notwithstanding section 101, the level for
administrative expenses of `Employment
[[Page H1078]]
and Training Administration, State Unemployment Insurance and
Employment Service Operations' shall be $106,252,000
(together with not to exceed $3,234,098,000, which may be
expended from the Employment Security Administration Account
in the Unemployment Trust Fund), of which $63,855,000 shall
be available for one-stop career centers and labor market
information activities. For purposes of this division, the
first proviso under such heading in the Department of Labor
Appropriations Act, 2006 shall be applied by substituting
`2007' and `2,703,000' for `2006' and `2,800,000',
respectively.
``Sec. 20602. Notwithstanding section 101, the level for
`Employee Benefits Security Administration, Salaries and
Expenses' shall be $140,834,000, of which no less than
$5,000,000 shall be for the development of an electronic Form
5500 filing system (EFAST2).
``Sec. 20603. Notwithstanding section 101, the level for
`Employment Standards Administration, Salaries and Expenses'
shall be $416,308,000 (together with $2,028,000 which may be
expended from the Special Fund in accordance with sections 39
(c), 44(d), and 44(j) of the Longshore and Harbor Workers'
Compensation Act).
``Sec. 20604. Notwithstanding section 101, the level for
`Occupational Safety and Health Administration, Salaries and
Expenses' shall be $485,074,000, of which $7,500,000 shall be
for continued development of the Occupational Safety and
Health Information System, and of which $10,116,000 shall be
for the Susan Harwood training grants program.
Notwithstanding any other provision of this division, the
fifth proviso under such heading in the Department of Labor
Appropriations Act, 2006 shall not apply to funds apprpriated
by this division.
``Sec. 20605. Notwithstanding section 101, the level for
`Mine Safety and Health Administration, Salaries and
Expenses' shall be $299,836,000.
``Sec. 20606. Notwithstanding section 101, the level for
`Bureau of Labor Statistics, Salaries and Expenses' shall be
$468,512,000 (together with not to exceed $77,067,000, which
may be expended from the Employment Security Administration
Account in the Unemployment Trust Fund).
``Sec. 20607. Notwithstanding section 101, the level for
`Departmental Management, Salaries and Expenses' shall be
$297,272,000 (together with not to exceed $308,000, which may
be expended from the Employment Security Administration
Account in the Unemployment Trust Fund), of which $72,516,000
shall be for contracts, grants, or other arrangements of
Departmental activities conducted by or through the Bureau of
International Labor Affairs, including $60,390,000 for child
labor activities, and of which not to exceed $6,875,000 may
remain available until September 30, 2008, for Frances
Perkins Building Security Enhancements.
``Sec. 20608. (a) Notwithstanding section 101, the level
for `Veterans Employment and Training, Salaries and Expenses'
shall not exceed $193,753,000 which may be derived from the
Employment Security Administration Account in the
Unemployment Trust Fund to carry out the provisions of
sections 4100 through 4113, 4211 through 4215, and 4321
through 4327 of title 38, United States Code, and Public Law
103-353, of which $1,967,000 is for the National Veterans
Employment and Training Services Institute.
``(b) Notwithstanding section 101, the level to carry out
the Homeless Veterans Reintegration Programs and the Veterans
Workforce Investment Programs shall be $29,244,000, of which
$7,435,000 shall be available for obligation for the period
July 1, 2007, through June 30, 2008.
``Sec. 20609. Notwithstanding section 101, the level for
`Office of the Inspector General' shall be $66,783,000
(together with not to exceed $5,552,000, which may be
expended from the Employment Security Administration Account
in the Unemployment Trust Fund).
``Sec. 20610. Section 193 of the Workforce Investment Act
of 1998 (29 U.S.C. 2943) is amended to read as follows:
`` `SEC. 193. TRANSFER OF FEDERAL EQUITY IN STATE EMPLOYMENT
SECURITY REAL PROPERTY TO THE STATES.
`` `(a) Transfer of Federal Equity.--Notwithstanding any
other provision of law, any Federal equity acquired in real
property through grants to States awarded under title III of
the Social Security Act (42 U.S.C. 501 et seq.) or under the
Wagner-Peyser Act (29 U.S.C. 49 et seq.) is transferred to
the States that used the grants for the acquisition of such
equity. The portion of any real property that is attributable
to the Federal equity transferred under this section shall be
used to carry out activities authorized under this Act, the
Wagner-Peyser Act (29 U.S.C. 49 et seq.), or title III of the
Social Security Act (42 U.S.C. 501 et seq.). Any disposition
of such real property shall be carried out in accordance with
the procedures prescribed by the Secretary and the portion of
the proceeds from the disposition of such real property that
is attributable to the Federal equity transferred under this
section shall be used to carry out activities authorized
under this Act, the Wagner-Peyser Act, or title III of the
Social Security Act.
`` `(b) Limitation on Use.--A State shall not use funds
awarded under this Act, the Wagner-Peyser Act, or title III
of the Social Security Act to amortize the costs of real
property that is purchased by any State on or after the date
of enactment of the Revised Continuing Appropriations
Resolution, 2007.'.
``Sec. 20611. (a)(1) Notwithstanding section 101 or any
other provision of this division, the level for `Department
of Health and Human Services, Health Resources and Services
Administration, Health Resources and Services' shall be
$6,883,586,000.
``(2) Of the amount provided in paragraph (1)--
``(A) $1,988,000,000 shall be for carrying out section 330
of the Public Health Service Act (42 U.S.C. 254b; relating to
health centers), of which $25,000,000 shall be for base grant
adjustments for existing health centers and $13,959,000 shall
be for carrying out Public Law 100-579, as amended by section
9168 of Public Law 102-396 (42 U.S.C. 11701 et seq.);
``(B) $184,746,000 shall be for carrying out title VII of
the Public Health Service Act (42 U.S.C. 292 et seq.;
relating to health professions programs) of which (i)
$31,548,000 shall be for carrying out section 753 of the
Public Health Service Act (42 U.S.C. 294c; relating to
geriatric programs); and (ii) $48,851,000 shall be for
carrying out section 747 of the Public Health Service Act (42
U.S.C. 293k; relating to training in primary care medicine
and dentistry), of which (I) not less than $5,000,000 shall
be for pediatric dentistry programs; (II) not less than
$5,000,000 shall be for general dentistry programs; and (III)
not less than $24,614,000 shall be for family medicine
programs;
``(C) $1,195,500,000 shall be for carrying out part B of
title XXVI of the Public Health Service Act (42 U.S.C. 300ff-
11 et seq.; relating to Ryan White CARE Grants); and
``(D) $495,000,000 shall be transferred to `Department of
Health and Human Services, Office of the Secretary, Public
Health and Social Services Emergency Fund' to carry out
sections 319C-2, 319F, and 319I of the Public Health Service
Act (42 U.S.C. 247d-3b, 247d-6, 247d-7b; relating to hospital
preparedness grants, bioterrorism training and curriculum
development, and credentialing/emergency systems for advance
registration of volunteer health professionals).
``(b) Notwithstanding any other provision of this division,
the parenthetical preceding the first proviso under the
heading `Department of Health and Human Services, Health
Resources and Services Administration, Health Resources and
Services' in the Department of Health and Human Services
Appropriations Act, 2006 shall not apply to funds
appropriated by this division.
``(c) Amounts made available by this division to carry out
parts A and B of title XXVI of the Public Health Service Act
(42 U.S.C. 300ff-11 et seq.; relating to Ryan White Emergency
Relief Grants and CARE Grants) shall remain available for
obligation by the Secretary of Health and Human Services
through September 30, 2009.
``(d) Any assets and liabilities associated with any
program under section 319C-2, 319F, or 319I of the Public
Health Service Act (42 U.S.C. 247d-3b, 247d-6, 247d-7b;
relating to hospital preparedness grants, bioterrorism
training and curriculum development, and credentialing/
emergency systems for advance registration of volunteer
health professionals) shall be permanently transferred to the
Secretary of Health and Human Services.
``Sec. 20612. Notwithstanding section 101, the level for
`Department of Health and Human Services, Health Resources
and Services Administration, Vaccine Injury Compensation
Program Trust Fund', for necessary administrative expenses,
shall not exceed $3,964,000.
``Sec. 20613. (a) Notwithstanding section 101, the level
for `Department of Health and Human Services, Centers for
Disease Control and Prevention; Disease Control, Research,
and Training' shall be $5,829,086,000, of which (1)
$456,863,000 shall be for carrying out the immunization
program authorized by section 317(a), (j), and (k)(1) of the
Public Health Service Act (42 U.S.C. 247b(a), (j), and
(k)(1)); (2) $99,000,000 shall be for carrying out part A of
title XIX of the Public Health Service Act (42 U.S.C. 300w et
seq.; relating to preventive health and health services block
grants); and (3) $134,400,000 shall be for equipment,
construction, and renovation of facilities.
``(b) None of the funds appropriated by this division may
be used to (1) implement section 2625 of the Public Health
Service Act (42 U.S.C. 300ff-33; relating to the Ryan White
early diagnosis grant program); or (2) enter into contracts
for annual bulk monovalent influenza vaccine.
``(c) Of the amounts made available in the Department of
Health and Human Services Appropriations Act, 2006 for
`Department of Health and Human Services, Centers for Disease
Control and Prevention; Disease Control, Research, and
Training', $29,680,000 for entering into contracts for annual
bulk monovalent influenza vaccine is rescinded.
``Sec. 20614. (a) Notwithstanding section 101, the levels
for the following accounts of the Department of Health and
Human Services, National Institutes of Health, shall be as
follows: `National Institute of Child Health and Human
Development', $1,253,769,000; `National Center for Research
Resources', $1,133,101,000; `National Center on Minority
Health and Health Disparities', $199,405,000; `National
Library of Medicine', $319,910,000; and `Office of the
Director', $1,095,566,000, of which up to $14,000,000 may be
used to carry out section 217 of the Department of Health and
Human Services Appropriations Act, 2006, $69,000,000 shall be
available to carry out the National Children's Study, and
$483,000,000 shall be available for the Common Fund
established under section 402A(c)(1) of the Public Health
Service Act.
``(b) The seventh, eighth, and ninth provisos under the
heading `Department of Health and Human Services, National
Institutes of Health, Office of the Director' in the
[[Page H1079]]
Department of Health and Human Services Appropriations Act,
2006, pertaining to the National Institutes of Health Roadmap
for Medical Research, shall not apply to funds appropriated
by this division.
``(c) Funds appropriated by this division to the Institutes
and Centers of the National Institutes of Health may be
expended for improvements and repairs of facilities, as
necessary for the proper and efficient conduct of the
activities authorized herein, not to exceed $2,500,000 per
project.
``Sec. 20615. (a) Notwithstanding section 101, the level
for `Department of Health and Human Services, Centers for
Medicare and Medicaid Services, Program Management' shall be
$3,136,006,000, of which $15,892,000 shall be for Real Choice
Systems Change Grants to States, $48,960,000 shall be for
contract costs for the Healthcare Integrated General Ledger
Accounting System, and $106,260,000 shall remain available
until September 30, 2008, for contracting reform activities
of the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services.
``(b) The Secretary of Health and Human Services shall
charge fees necessary to cover the costs incurred under
`Department of Health and Human Services, Centers for
Medicare and Medicaid Services, Program Management' for
conducting revisit surveys on health care facilities cited
for deficiencies during initial certification,
recertification, or substantiated complaints surveys.
Notwithstanding section 3302 of title 31, United States Code,
receipts from such fees shall be credited to such account as
offsetting collections, to remain available until expended
for conducting such surveys.
``Sec. 20616. Notwithstanding any other provision of this
division, the provision of the Department of Health and Human
Services Appropriations Act, 2006, `Department of Health and
Human Services, Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services,
Health Maintenance Organization Loan and Loan Guarantee
Fund', shall not apply to funds appropriated by this
division.
``Sec. 20617. Notwithstanding section 101, the level for
`Department of Health and Human Services, Administration for
Children and Families, Refugee and Entrant Assistance' shall
be $587,823,000, of which $95,302,000 shall be for costs
associated with the care and placement of unaccompanied alien
children under section 462 of the Homeland Security Act of
2002 (6 U.S.C. 279).
``Sec. 20618. Notwithstanding any other provision of this
division, the first proviso under the heading `Department of
Health and Human Services, Administration for Children and
Families, Payments to States for the Child Care and
Development Block Grant' in the Department of Health and
Human Services Appropriations Act, 2006 may be applied to
child care resource and referral and school-aged child care
activities without regard to any specific designation
therein.
``Sec. 20619. Notwithstanding section 101, the level for
`Department of Health and Human Services, Administration for
Children and Families, Children and Families Services
Programs' shall be $8,937,059,000, of which (1)
$6,888,571,000 shall be for making payments under the Head
Start Act; (2) $186,365,000 shall be for Federal
administration; and (3) $5,000,000 shall be for grants to
States for adoption incentive payments, as authorized by
section 473A of the Social Security Act (42 U.S.C. 673b).
``Sec. 20620. Notwithstanding section 101, the level for
`Department of Health and Human Services, Administration on
Aging, Aging Services Programs' shall be $1,382,859,000, of
which $398,919,000 shall be for Congregate Nutrition Services
and $188,305,000 shall be for Home-Delivered Nutrition
Services.
``Sec. 20621. Notwithstanding section 101, the level for
`Department of Health and Human Services, Public Health and
Social Services Emergency Fund' shall be $160,027,000, of
which $100,000,000 shall be transferred within 30 days of
enactment of the Revised Continuing Appropriations
Resolution, 2007, to `Department of Health and Human
Services, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention; Disease
Control, Research, and Training' for preparedness and
response to pandemic influenza and other emerging infectious
diseases.
``Sec. 20622. Notwithstanding section 208 of the
Department of Health and Human Services Appropriations Act,
2006, not to exceed 1 percent of any discretionary funds
(pursuant to the Balanced Budget and Emergency Deficit
Control Act of 1985) that are appropriated for the current
fiscal year for the Department of Health and Human Services
in this division may be transferred among appropriations, but
no such appropriation to which such funds are transferred may
be increased by more than 3 percent by any such transfer:
Provided, That an appropriation may be increased by up to an
additional 2 percent subject to approval by the Committees on
Appropriations of the House of Representatives and the
Senate: Provided further, That the transfer authority granted
by this section shall be available only to meet unanticipated
needs and shall not be used to create any new program or to
fund any project or activity for which no funds are provided
in this division: Provided further, That the Committees on
Appropriations are notified at least 15 days in advance of
any transfer.
``Sec. 20623. Section 214 of the Department of Health and
Human Services Appropriations Act, 2006 shall be applied to
funds appropriated by this division by substituting `2006'
and `2007' for `2005' and `2006', respectively, each place
they appear.
``Sec. 20624. Notwithstanding any other provision of this
division, sections 222 and 223 of the Department of Health
and Human Services Appropriations Act, 2006 shall not apply
to funds appropriated by this division.
``Sec. 20625. (a) Notwithstanding section 101 or any other
provision of this division, the level for `Department of
Education, Education for the Disadvantaged' shall be
$14,725,593,000.
``(b) Of the amount provided in subsection (a)--
``(1) $7,172,994,000 shall become available on July 1,
2007, and shall remain available through September 30, 2008,
of which (A) $5,451,387,000 shall be for basic grants under
section 1124 of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act of
1965 (ESEA); (B) $125,000,000 shall be for school improvement
grants authorized under section 1003(g) of the ESEA; and (C)
not to exceed $2,352,000 shall be available for section 1608
of the ESEA; and
``(2) $7,383,301,000 shall become available on October 1,
2007, and shall remain available through September 30, 2008,
for academic year 2007-2008, of which (A) $1,353,584,000
shall be for basic grants under section 1124 of the ESEA; (B)
$2,332,343,000 shall be for targeted grants under section
1125 of the ESEA; and (C) $2,332,343,000 shall be for
education finance incentive grants under section 1125A of the
ESEA.
``(c) Notwithstanding any other provision of this division,
the last proviso under the heading `Department of Education,
Education for the Disadvantaged' in the Department of
Education Appropriations Act, 2006 may be applied to
activities authorized under part F of title I of the ESEA
without regard to any specific designation therein.
``Sec. 20626. For purposes of this division, the proviso
under the heading `Department of Education, Impact Aid' shall
be applied by substituting `2006-2007' for `2005-2006'.
``Sec. 20627. Of the amount provided by section 101 for
`Department of Education, School Improvement Programs',
$33,907,000 shall be for programs authorized under part B of
title VII of the ESEA and $33,907,000 shall be for programs
authorized under part C of title VII of the ESEA.
Notwithstanding any other provision of this division, the
second proviso under such heading in the Department of
Education Appropriations Act, 2006 shall not apply to funds
appropriated by this division.
``Sec. 20628. Notwithstanding section 101 or any other
provision of this division, (1) the level for `Department of
Education, Innovation and Improvement' shall be $837,686,000,
of which not to exceed $200,000 shall be for the teacher
incentive fund authorized in subpart 1 of part D of title V
of the ESEA; and (2) the first proviso under such heading in
the Department of Education Appropriations Act, 2006 may be
applied to advanced credentialing activities authorized under
subpart 5 of part A of title II of the ESEA without regard to
any specific designation therein.
``Sec. 20629. Notwithstanding section 101 or any other
provision of this division, (1) the level for `Department of
Education, Safe Schools and Citizenship Education' shall be
$729,518,000, of which (A) not less than $72,674,000 shall be
used to carry out subpart 10 of part D of title V of the
ESEA; and (B) $48,814,000 shall be used for mentoring
programs authorized under section 4130 of the ESEA; and (2)
the last proviso under such heading in the Department of
Education Appropriations Act, 2006 may be applied to civic
education activities authorized under subpart 3 of part C of
title II of the ESEA without regard to any specific
designation therein.
``Sec. 20630. (a)(1) Notwithstanding section 101, the level
for `Department of Education, Special Education' shall be
$11,802,867,000.
``(2) Of the amount made available in paragraph (1),
$6,175,912,000 shall become available on July 1, 2007, and
shall remain available through September 30, 2008, of which
$5,358,761,000 shall be for State grants authorized under
section 611 (20 U.S.C. 1411) of part B of the Individuals
with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA).
``(b) None of the funds appropriated by this division may
be used for State personnel development authorized in subpart
1 of part D of the IDEA (20 U.S.C. 1451 et seq.).
``(c) Notwithstanding any other provision of this division,
the first and second provisos under the heading `Department
of Education, Special Education' in the Department of
Education Appropriations Act, 2006 shall not apply to funds
appropriated by this division. For purposes of this division,
the last proviso under such heading shall be applied by
substituting `2006' for `2005'.
``Sec. 20631. Notwithstanding any other provision of this
division, the second appropriation under the heading
`Department of Education, Rehabilitation Services and
Disability Research' in the Department of Education
Appropriations Act, 2006 shall not apply to funds
appropriated by this division.
``Sec. 20632. The provision pertaining to funding for
construction under `Department of Education, Special
Institutions for Persons With Disabilities, National
Technical Institute for the Deaf' shall not apply to funds
appropriated by this division.
``Sec. 20633. (a) Notwithstanding section 101, the level
for `Department of Education, Student Financial Assistance'
shall be $15,542,456,000.
``(b) The maximum Pell Grant for which a student shall be
eligible during award year 2007-2008 shall be $4,310.
``Sec. 20634. (a) In addition to the amounts provided under
section 101 of this division,
[[Page H1080]]
amounts obligated in fiscal year 2006 from funding provided
in section 458(a)(1) of the Higher Education Act of 1965 (20
U.S.C. 1087h(a)(1)) (as reduced by the amount of account
maintenance fees obligated to guaranty agencies for fiscal
year 2006 pursuant to section 458(a)(1)(B) of that Act) shall
be deemed to have been provided in an applicable
appropriations Act for fiscal year 2006.
``(b) Notwithstanding section 101, the level for
`Department of Education, Student Aid Administration' shall
be $718,800,000, to remain available until expended.
``Sec. 20635. Of the amount provided by section 101 for
`Department of Education, Higher Education', $11,785,000
shall be for carrying out section 317 of the Higher Education
Act of 1965 (20 U.S.C. 1059d).
``Sec. 20636. Notwithstanding section 101, the level for
`Department of Education, Departmental Management, Program
Administration' shall be $416,250,000, of which $2,100,000,
to remain available until expended, shall be for building
alterations and related expenses for the move of Department
staff to the Mary E. Switzer building in Washington, DC.
``Sec. 20637. Notwithstanding any other provision of this
division, section 305 of the Department of Education
Appropriations Act, 2006 (title III of Public Law 109-149;
119 Stat. 2870) shall not apply to this division.
``Sec. 20638. Notwithstanding section 101, the level for
`Corporation for National and Community Service, Domestic
Volunteer Service Programs, Operating Expenses' shall be
$316,550,000, of which $3,500,000 shall be for establishment
in the Treasury of a VISTA Advance Payments Revolving Fund
(in this section referred to as the `Fund') for the
Corporation for National and Community Service which, in
addition to reimbursements collected from eligible public
agencies and private nonprofit organizations pursuant to
cost-share agreements, shall be available until expended to
make advance payments in furtherance of title I of the
Domestic Volunteer Service Act of 1973 (42 U.S.C. 4951-4995):
Provided, That up to 10 percent of funds appropriated to
carry out title I of such Act may be transferred to the Fund
if the Chief Executive Officer of the Corporation for
National and Community Service determines that the amounts in
the Fund are not sufficient to cover expenses of the Fund:
Provided further, That the Corporation for National and
Community Service shall provide detailed information on the
activities and financial status of the Fund during the
preceding fiscal year in the annual congressional budget
justifications to the Committees on Appropriations of the
House of Representatives and the Senate.
``Sec. 20639. (a) Notwithstanding section 101, the level
for the `Corporation for National and Community Service,
National and Community Service Programs, Operating Expenses'
shall be $494,007,000, of which (1) $117,720,000 shall be
transferred to the National Service Trust; and (2)
$31,131,000 shall be for activities authorized under subtitle
H of title I of the National and Community Service Act of
1990.
``(b) Notwithstanding any other provision of this division,
the eleventh and thirteenth provisos under the heading
`Corporation for National and Community Service, National and
Community Service Programs, Operating Expenses' in the
Departments of Labor, Health and Human Services, and
Education, and Related Agencies Appropriations Act, 2006
shall not apply to funds appropriated by this division.
``Sec. 20640. Notwithstanding section 101, the level for
`Corporation for National and Community Service, Salaries and
Expenses' shall be $68,627,000.
``Sec. 20641. Notwithstanding section 101, the level for
`Corporation for National and Community Service, Office of
Inspector General' shall be $4,940,000.
``Sec. 20642. In addition to amounts provided by section
101 of this division, funds appropriated to the Medicare
Payment Advisory Commission under section 106(b)(1)(B) of the
Medicare Improvements and Extension Act of 2006 (division B
of Public Law 109-432) shall be used to carry out section
1805 of the Social Security Act (42 U.S.C. 1395b-6).
``Sec. 20643. Notwithstanding section 101, the level for
`Railroad Retirement Board, Dual Benefits Payments Account'
shall be $88,000,000.
``Sec. 20644. Notwithstanding section 101, the level for
`Railroad Retirement Board, Limitation on Administration'
shall be $103,018,000.
``Sec. 20645. (a) Administrative Expenses.--Notwithstanding
section 101, the level for the first paragraph under the
heading `Social Security Administration, Limitation on
Administrative Expenses' shall be $9,136,606,000.
``(b) Conforming Change.--Notwithstanding section 101, the
level for the first paragraph under the heading `Social
Security Administration, Supplemental Security Income
Program' shall be $29,058,000,000, of which $2,937,000,000
shall be for administrative expenses.
``CHAPTER 7--LEGISLATIVE BRANCH
``Sec. 20701. (a) Notwithstanding section 101, the level
for `Senate, Contingent Expenses of the Senate, Senators'
Official Personnel and Office Expense Account' shall be
$361,456,000.
``(b)(1) The Architect of the Capitol may acquire (through
purchase, lease, transfer from another Federal entity, or
otherwise) real property, for the use of the Sergeant at Arms
and Doorkeeper of the Senate to support the operations of the
Senate--
``(A) subject to the approval of the Committee on Rules and
Administration of the Senate; and
``(B) subject to the availability of appropriations and
upon approval of an obligation plan by the Committee on
Appropriations of the Senate.
``(2) Subject to the approval of the Committee on
Appropriations of the Senate, the Secretary of the Senate may
transfer funds for the acquisition or maintenance of any
property under paragraph (1) from the account under the
heading `Senate, Contingent Expenses of the Senate, Sergeant
at Arms and Doorkeeper of the Senate' to the account under
the heading `Architect of the Capitol, Senate Office
Buildings'.
``(3) This subsection shall apply with respect to fiscal
year 2007 and each fiscal year thereafter.
``(c)(1) Section 10 of the Legislative Branch
Appropriations Act, 2005 (Public Law 108-447; 118 Stat. 3170)
is amended--
``(A) by inserting `(a) In General.--' before `The Office';
and
``(B) by adding at the end the following new subsection:
`` `(b) Effective Date.--This section shall apply to fiscal
year 2005 and each fiscal year thereafter.' ''.
``(2) The amendments made by this subsection shall take
effect as though included in the Legislative Branch
Appropriations Act, 2005.
``Sec. 20702. (a) Notwithstanding section 101, the level
for `House of Representatives, Salaries and Expenses' shall
be $1,129,454,000, to be allocated in accordance with an
allocation plan submitted by the Chief Administrative Officer
and approved by the Committee on Appropriations of the House
of Representatives.
``(b) Sections 103 and 107 of H.R. 5521, One Hundred Ninth
Congress, as passed by the House of Representatives on June
7, 2006, are enacted into law.
``Sec. 20703. (a) Notwithstanding section 101, the level
for `Capitol Guide Service and Special Services Office' shall
be $8,490,000, and the provisos under the heading `Capitol
Guide Service and Special Services Office' in the Legislative
Branch Appropriations Act, 2006 (Public Law 109-55; 119 Stat.
571) shall not apply.
``(b) Notwithstanding section 101, the level for `Capitol
Police, General Expenses' shall be $38,500,000: Provided,
That, notwithstanding any other provision of law, the cost of
basic training for the Capitol Police at the Federal Law
Enforcement Training Center for fiscal year 2007 shall be
paid by the Secretary of Homeland Security from funds
available to the Department of Homeland Security.
``(c)(1) Notwithstanding section 101, the level for
`Architect of the Capitol, Capitol Power Plant' shall be
$73,098,000.
``(2) Notwithstanding section 101, the level for `Architect
of the Capitol, Library Buildings and Grounds' shall be
$27,375,000.
``(3) Notwithstanding section 101, the level for `Architect
of the Capitol, Capitol Police Buildings and Grounds' shall
be $11,753,000, of which $2,000,000 shall remain available
until September 30, 2011.
``(4) Notwithstanding section 101, amounts made available
under such section for projects and activities described
under the heading `Architect of the Capitol, Capitol Visitor
Center' in the Legislative Branch Appropriations Act, 2006
may be transferred among the accounts and purposes specified
in such heading, upon the approval of the Committees on
Appropriations of the House of Representatives and Senate.
``(d)(1) Notwithstanding section 101, the level for
`Library of Congress, Salaries and Expenses' shall be
$385,000,000, of which not more than $6,000,000 shall be
derived from collections credited to this appropriation
during fiscal year 2007 and shall remain available until
expended under the Act of June 28, 1902 (chapter 1301; 32
Stat. 480; 2 U.S.C. 150), and not more than $350,000 shall be
derived from collections credited to this appropriation
during fiscal year 2007 and shall remain available until
expended for the development and maintenance of an
international legal information database (and related
activities).
``(2) The eighth, tenth, and eleventh provisos under the
heading `Library of Congress, Salaries and Expenses' in the
Legislative Branch Appropriations Act, 2006 (Public Law 109-
55; 119 Stat. 580) shall not apply to funds appropriated by
this division.
``(3) Of the unobligated balances available under the
heading `Library of Congress, Salaries and Expenses', the
following amounts are rescinded:
``(A) Of the unobligated balances available for the
National Digital Information Infrastructure and Preservation
Program, $47,000,000.
``(B) Of the unobligated balances available for furniture
and furnishings, $695,394.
``(C) Of the unobligated balances available for the
acquisition and partial support for implementation of an
Integrated Library System, $1,853,611.
``(4) Notwithstanding section 101, the level for `Library
of Congress, Books for the Blind and Physically Handicapped,
Salaries and Expenses' shall be $53,505,000, of which
$16,231,000 shall remain available until expended.
``(5) The proviso under the heading `Books for the Blind
and Physically Handicapped, Salaries and Expenses' in the
Legislative Branch Appropriations Act, 2006 (Public Law 109--
55; 119 Stat. 582) shall not apply to funds appropriated by
this division.
[[Page H1081]]
``(6) Section 3402 of the Emergency Supplemental
Appropriations Act for Defense, the Global War on Terror, and
Tsunami Relief, 2005 (Public Law 109-13; 119 Stat. 272) is
repealed, and each provision of law amended by such section
is restored as if such section had not been enacted into law.
``(e) Notwithstanding section 101, the level for
`Government Printing Office, Government Printing Office
Revolving Fund' shall be $1,000,000.
``(f) Notwithstanding section 101, the amount applicable
under the first proviso under the heading `Government
Accountability Office, Salaries and Expenses' in the
Legislative Branch Appropriations Act, 2006 (Public Law 109-
55; 119 Stat. 586) shall be $5,167,900, and the amount
applicable under the second proviso under such heading shall
be $2,763,000.
``CHAPTER 8--MILITARY QUALITY OF LIFE AND VETERANS AFFAIRS
``Sec. 20801. Notwithstanding section 101, the level for
each of the following accounts of the Department of Defense
for projects authorized in division B of Public Law 109-364
shall be as follows: `Military Construction, Army',
$2,013,000,000; `Military Construction, Navy and Marine
Corps', $1,129,000,000; `Military Construction, Air Force',
$1,083,000,000; `Military Construction, Defense-Wide',
$1,127,000,000; `Military Construction, Army National Guard',
$473,000,000; `Military Construction, Air National Guard',
$126,000,000; `Military Construction, Army Reserve',
$166,000,000; `Military Construction, Navy Reserve',
$43,000,000; and `Military Construction, Air Force Reserve',
$45,000,000.
``Sec. 20802. Of the total amount specified in section
20801, the amount available for study, planning, design,
architect and engineer services, and host nation support, as
authorized by law, under the headings `Military Construction,
Army', `Military Construction, Navy and Marine Corps',
`Military Construction, Air Force', and `Military
Construction, Defense-Wide' shall not exceed $541,000,000.
``Sec. 20803. Notwithstanding any other provision of this
division, the following provisions included in the Military
Quality of Life, Military Construction, and Veterans Affairs
Appropriations Act, 2006 (Public Law 109-114) shall not apply
to funds appropriated by this division: the first two
provisos under the heading `Military Construction, Army'; the
first proviso under the heading `Military Construction, Navy
and Marine Corps'; the first proviso under the heading
`Military Construction, Air Force'; and the second proviso
under the heading `Military Construction, Defense-Wide'.
``Sec. 20804. Notwithstanding section 101, the level for
each of the following accounts for the Department of Defense
shall be as follows: `Family Housing Construction, Army',
$579,000,000; `Family Housing Operation and Maintenance,
Army', $671,000,000; `Family Housing Construction, Navy and
Marine Corps', $305,000,000; `Family Housing Operation and
Maintenance, Navy and Marine Corps', $505,000,000; `Family
Housing Construction, Air Force', $1,168,000,000; `Family
Housing Operation and Maintenance, Air Force', $750,000,000;
`Family Housing Construction, Defense-Wide', $9,000,000;
`Family Housing Operation and Maintenance, Defense-Wide',
$49,000,000; `Chemical Demilitarization Construction,
Defense-Wide', $131,000,000; and `Department of Defense Base
Closure Account 2005', $2,489,421,000.
``Sec. 20805. Of the funds made available under the
following headings in Public Law 108-132, the following
amounts are rescinded: `Military Construction, Navy and
Marine Corps', $19,500,000; and `Military Construction,
Defense-Wide', $9,000,000.
``Sec. 20806. Of the funds made available under the
following headings in Public Law 108-324, the following
amounts are rescinded: `Military Construction, Navy and
Marine Corps', $8,000,000; `Military Construction, Air
Force', $2,694,000; `Military Construction, Defense-Wide',
$43,000,000; and `Family Housing Construction, Air Force',
$18,000,000.
``Sec. 20807. Of the funds made available under the
following headings in Public Law 109-114, the following
amounts are rescinded: `Military Construction, Army',
$43,348,000; `Military Construction, Defense-Wide',
$58,229,000; and `Military Construction, Army National
Guard', $2,129,000.
``Sec. 20808. Notwithstanding section 101, the level for
each of the following accounts of the Department of Veterans
Affairs shall be as follows: `Veterans Health Administration,
Medical Services', $25,423,250,000; `Veterans Health
Administration, Medical Administration', $3,156,850,000;
`Veterans Health Administration, Medical Facilities',
$3,558,150,000; `Departmental Administration, General
Operating Expenses', $1,472,164,000, provided that the
Veterans Benefits Administration shall be funded at not less
than $1,161,659,000; `Departmental Administration,
Construction, Major Projects', $399,000,000, of which
$2,000,000 shall be to make reimbursements as provided in
section 13 of the Contract Disputes Act of 1978 (41 U.S.C.
612) for claims paid for contracts disputes; and
`Departmental Administration, National Cemetery
Administration', $159,983,000.
``Sec. 20809. The first proviso under the heading
`Veterans Benefits Administration, Compensation and Pensions'
in the Military Quality of Life, Military Construction, and
Veterans Affairs Appropriations Act, 2006 (Public Law 109-
114) shall be applied to funds appropriated by this division
by substituting `$28,112,000' for `$23,491,000'.
``Sec. 20810. Notwithstanding any other provision of this
division, the following provisions included in the Military
Quality of Life, Military Construction, and Veterans Affairs
Appropriations Act, 2006 (Public Law 109-114) shall not apply
to funds appropriated by this division: the first, second,
and last provisos, and the set-aside of $2,200,000,000, under
the heading `Veterans Health Administration, Medical
Services'; the set-aside of $15,000,000 under the heading
`Veterans Health Administration, Medical and Prosthetic
Research'; the set-aside of $532,010,000 under the heading
`Departmental Administration, Construction, Major Projects';
and the set-aside of $155,000,000 under the heading
`Departmental Administration, Construction, Minor Projects'.
``Sec. 20811. Notwithstanding any other provision of this
division, the following sections included in the Military
Quality of Life, Military Construction, and Veterans Affairs
Appropriations Act, 2006 (Public Law 109-114) shall not apply
to funds appropriated by this division: section 217, section
224, section 228, section 229, and section 230.
``Sec. 20812. Notwithstanding section 101, the level for
each of the following accounts of the American Battle
Monuments Commission shall be as follows: `Salaries and
Expenses', $37,000,000; and `Foreign Currency Fluctuations
Account', $5,000,000.
``Sec. 20813. Notwithstanding section 101, the level for
`United States Court of Appeals for Veterans Claims, Salaries
and Expenses' shall be $20,100,000.
``Sec. 20814. Section 2101(a) of the Military Construction
Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2007 (division B of Public
Law 109-364; 120 Stat. 2445) is amended by striking the first
table of authorized Army construction and land acquisition
projects for inside the United States and by adding at the
end of the remaining table the last two items in the
corresponding table on pages 366 and 367 of House Report 109-
702, which is the conference report resolving the disagreeing
votes of the House of Representatives and the Senate on the
amendment of the Senate to H.R. 5122 of the 109th Congress.
``CHAPTER 9--SCIENCE, STATE, JUSTICE, COMMERCE, AND RELATED AGENCIES
``Sec. 20901. (a) Notwithstanding section 101, the level
for each of the following accounts of the Department of
Justice shall be as follows: `General Administration,
Salaries and Expenses', $97,053,000; `General Administration,
Justice Information Sharing Technology', $123,510,000;
`General Administration, Narrowband Communications/Integrated
Wireless Network', $89,188,000; `General Administration,
Detention Trustee', $1,225,788,000; `General Administration,
Office of Inspector General', $70,118,000; `United States
Parole Commission, Salaries and Expenses', $11,424,000;
`Legal Activities, Salaries and Expenses, Foreign Claims
Settlement Commission', $1,551,000; `United States Marshals
Service, Salaries and Expenses', $807,967,000; `United States
Marshals Service, Construction', $6,846,000; `Salaries and
Expenses, Community Relations Service', $10,178,000; `Assets
Forfeiture Fund', $21,211,000; `Interagency Law Enforcement,
Interagency Crime and Drug Enforcement', $494,793,000; `Drug
Enforcement Administration, Salaries and Expenses',
$1,737,412,000; `Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and
Explosives, Salaries and Expenses', $979,244,000; `Federal
Prison System, Salaries and Expenses', $4,974,261,000;
`Office of Justice Programs, Justice Assistance',
$237,689,000; `Office of Justice Programs, Community Oriented
Policing Services', $541,697,000; and `Office on Violence
Against Women, Violence Against Women Prevention and
Prosecution Programs', $382,534,000.
``(b) In addition to the amount otherwise appropriated by
this division for `Department of Justice, Office of Justice
Programs, State and Local Law Enforcement Assistance' for the
Edward Byrne Memorial Justice Assistance Grant program, there
is appropriated $108,693,000 for such purpose.
``Sec. 20902. Notwithstanding section 101, the level for
`Department of Justice, Legal Activities, Salaries and
Expenses, Antitrust Division' shall be $147,002,000, to
remain available until expended: Provided, That
notwithstanding any other provision of law, not to exceed
$129,000,000 of offsetting collections derived from fees
collected for premerger notification filings under the Hart-
Scott-Rodino Anti-trust Improvements Act of 1976 (15 U.S.C.
18a), regardless of the year of collection, shall be retained
and used for necessary expenses in this appropriation, and
shall remain available until expended: Provided further, That
the sum herein appropriated from the general fund shall be
reduced as such offsetting collections are received during
fiscal year 2007, so as to result in a final fiscal year 2007
appropriation from the general fund estimated at not more
than $18,002,000.
``Sec. 20903. Notwithstanding section 101, the level for
`Department of Justice, Legal Activities, United States
Trustee System Fund', as authorized, shall be $222,121,000,
to remain available until expended and to be derived from the
United States Trustee System Fund: Provided, That
notwithstanding any other provision of law, deposits to the
Fund shall be available in such amounts as may be necessary
to pay refunds due depositors: Provided further, That
notwithstanding any other provision of law, $222,121,000 of
offsetting collections pursuant to 28 U.S.C. 589a(b) shall be
retained and used for necessary expenses in this
appropriation and remain available until expended: Provided
further, That the sum herein appropriated from the Fund shall
be reduced as such offsetting collections are received during
fiscal year 2007, so as to result in a final fiscal year 2007
appropriation from the Fund estimated at $0.
[[Page H1082]]
``Sec. 20904. Notwithstanding section 101, the level for
`Department of Justice, Federal Bureau of Investigation,
Salaries and Expenses' shall be $5,962,219,000.
``Sec. 20905. Notwithstanding section 101, the level for
`Department of Justice, Federal Bureau of Investigation,
Construction' shall be $51,392,000.
``Sec. 20906. Notwithstanding section 101, the level for
`Department of Justice, National Security Division', as
authorized by section 509A of title 28, United States Code,
shall be $66,741,000: Provided, That upon a determination by
the Attorney General that emergent circumstances require
additional funding for activities of the National Security
Division, the Attorney General may transfer such amounts to
the National Security Division from available appropriations
for the current fiscal year for the Department of Justice, as
may be necessary to respond to such circumstances: Provided
further, That any transfer pursuant to the previous proviso
shall be treated as a reprogramming under section 605 of
Public Law 109-108 and shall not be available for obligation
or expenditure except in compliance with the procedures set
forth in that section.
``Sec. 20907. Notwithstanding section 101, the level for
`Department of Justice, United States Attorneys, Salaries and
Expenses' shall be $1,645,613,000.
``Sec. 20908. Notwithstanding section 101, the level for
`Department of Justice, Administrative Review and Appeals'
shall be $228,066,000.
``Sec. 20909. Notwithstanding section 101, the level for
`Department of Justice, General Legal Activities, Salaries
and Expenses' shall be $672,609,000.
``Sec. 20910. Notwithstanding section 101, the level for
`Department of Justice, Federal Prison System, Buildings and
Facilities' shall be $432,290,000.
``Sec. 20911. Notwithstanding section 101, the level for
`Bureau of the Census, Periodic Censuses and Programs' shall
be $511,603,000 for necessary expenses related to the 2010
decennial census and $182,489,000 for expenses to collect and
publish statistics for other periodic censuses and programs
provided for by law.
``Sec. 20912. Notwithstanding section 101, the level for
`Department of Commerce, Science and Technology, Technology
Administration, Salaries and Expenses' shall be $2,000,000.
``Sec. 20913. Notwithstanding section 101, the level for
the following accounts of the National Institute of Standards
and Technology shall be as follows: `Scientific and Technical
Research and Services', $432,762,000; and `Construction of
Research Facilities', $58,651,000.
``Sec. 20914. Notwithstanding section 101 under `National
Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, Operations, Research,
and Facilities', $79,000,000 shall be derived by transfer
from the fund entitled `Promote and Develop Fishery Products
and Research Pertaining to American Fisheries'.
``Sec. 20915. Notwithstanding section 101, the level for
the following accounts of the National Aeronautics and Space
Administration shall be as follows: `Science, Aeronautics and
Exploration', $10,075,000,000, of which $5,251,200,000 shall
be for science, $890,400,000 shall be for aeronautics
research, $3,401,600,000 shall be for exploration systems,
and $531,800,000 shall be for cross-agency support programs;
`Exploration Capabilities', $6,140,000,000; and `Office of
Inspector General', $32,000,000.
``Sec. 20916. Notwithstanding section 101, the level for
`National Science Foundation, Research and Related
Activities' shall be $4,665,950,000, of which not to exceed
$485,000,000 shall remain available until expended for Polar
research and operations support, and for reimbursement to
other Federal agencies for operational and science support
and logistical and other related activities for the United
States Antarctic Program: Provided, That from funds provided
under this section, such sums as are necessary shall be
available for the procurement of polar icebreaking services:
Provided further, That the National Science Foundation shall
reimburse the Coast Guard according to the existing
memorandum of agreement.
``Sec. 20917. Notwithstanding section 101, the level for
`Antitrust Modernization Commission, Salaries and Expenses'
shall be $462,000.
``Sec. 20918. Notwithstanding section 101, the level for
`Legal Services Corporation, Payment to the Legal Services
Corporation' shall be $348,578,000.
``Sec. 20919. Of the unobligated balances available under
the heading `Department of Justice, General Administration,
Working Capital Fund', $2,500,000 is rescinded.
``Sec. 20920. Of the unobligated balances available under
the heading `Department of Justice, General Administration,
Telecommunications Carrier Compliance Fund', $39,000,000 is
rescinded.
``Sec. 20921. Of the unobligated balances available under
the heading `Department of Justice, Violent Crime Reduction
Trust Fund', $8,000,000 is rescinded.
``Sec. 20922. Of the unobligated balances available under
the heading `Department of Justice, Legal Activities, Assets
Forfeiture Fund', $170,000,000 shall be rescinded not later
than September 30, 2007.
``Sec. 20923. Of the unobligated balances available from
prior year appropriations under any `Department of Justice,
Office of Justice Programs' account, $109,000,000 shall be
rescinded, of which no more than $31,000,000 shall be
rescinded from `Department of Justice, Office of Justice
Programs, Community Oriented Policing Services', not later
than September 30, 2007: Provided, That funds made available
for `Department of Justice, Office of Justice Programs,
Community Oriented Policing Services' program management and
administration shall not be reduced due to such rescission.
``Sec. 20924. Of the unobligated balances available under
the heading `Department of Commerce, National Oceanic and
Atmospheric Administration', $25,000,000 is rescinded.
``Sec. 20925. Of the unobligated balances available under
the heading `Department of Commerce, National Institute of
Standards and Technology, Industrial Technology Services',
$7,000,000 is rescinded.
``Sec. 20926. The third proviso under the heading
`Department of Justice, Legal Activities, Salaries and
Expenses, United States Attorneys', of the Science, State,
Justice, Commerce and Related Agencies Appropriations Act,
2006 (Public Law 109-108) shall not apply to funds
appropriated by this division.
``Sec. 20927. The first through third provisos under the
heading `Department of Justice, Federal Bureau of
Investigation, Construction' of the Science, State, Justice,
Commerce and Related Agencies Appropriations Act, 2006
(Public Law 109-108) shall not apply to funds appropriated by
this division.
``Sec. 20928. The tenth through twelfth provisos under the
heading `Department of Justice, Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco,
Firearms and Explosives, Salaries and Expenses' of the
Science, State, Justice, Commerce and Related Agencies
Appropriations Act, 2006 (Public Law 109-108) shall not apply
to funds appropriated by this division.
``Sec. 20929. The matter pertaining to the National
District Attorneys Association in paragraph (12) under the
heading `Department of Justice, Office of Justice Programs,
Community Oriented Policing Services' of the Science, State,
Justice, Commerce and Related Agencies Appropriations Act,
2006 (Public Law 109-108) shall not apply to funds
appropriated by this division.
``Sec. 20930. Sections 207, 208, and 209 of the Science,
State, Justice, Commerce, and Related Agencies Appropriations
Act, 2006 (Public Law 109-108) shall not apply to funds
appropriated by this division.
``Sec. 20931. Notwithstanding any other provision of this
division, the following provisions of the Science, State,
Justice, Commerce, and Related Agencies Appropriations Act,
2006 (Public Law 109-108), relating to the Department of
Commerce, National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration,
shall not apply to funds appropriated by this division: the
twelfth proviso under the heading `Operations, Research and
Facilities'; the fifth proviso under the heading
`Procurement, Acquisition and Construction'; and the set-
aside of $19,000,000 under the second proviso under the
heading `Fisheries Finance Program Account'.
``Sec. 20932. In the Science, State, Justice, Commerce,
and Related Agencies Appropriations Act, 2006 (Public Law
109-108), under the heading `National Aeronautics and Space
Administration, Administrative Provisions', the paragraph
beginning `Funding made available under' and all that follows
through `conference report for this Act.' shall not apply to
funds appropriated by this division.
``Sec. 20933. Title VIII of the Departments of Commerce,
Justice, and State, the Judiciary, and Related Agencies
Appropriations Act, 2005 (Public Law 108-447, division B) is
amended by striking `fiscal years 2005 and 2006' each place
it appears and inserting `fiscal years 2005, 2006, and 2007'.
``Sec. 20934. Notwithstanding section 101, the level for
`Department of Commerce, United States Patent and Trademark
Office, Salaries and Expenses' shall be $1,771,000,000, to
remain available until expended: Provided, That the sum
herein appropriated from the general fund shall be reduced as
offsetting collections assessed and collected pursuant to
section 1113 of title 15 of the United States Code, and
sections 41 and 376 of title 35 of the United States Code,
are received during fiscal year 2007, so as to result in a
fiscal year 2007 appropriation from the general fund
estimated at $0: Provided further, That during fiscal year
2007, should the total amount of offsetting fee collections
be less than $1,771,000,000, this amount shall be reduced
accordingly.
``Sec. 20935. Funds appropriated by section 101 of this
division for International Space Station Cargo Crew Services/
International Partner Purchases and International Space
Station/Multi-User System Support within the National
Aeronautics and Space Administration may be obligated in the
account and budget structure set forth in the pertinent Act
specified in section 101(a)(8).
``Sec. 20936. The matter pertaining to paragraph (1)(B)
under the heading `Department of Justice, Office of Justice
Programs, State and Local Law Enforcement Assistance' of the
Science, State, Justice, Commerce and Related Agencies
Appropriations Act, 2006 shall not apply to funds
appropriated by this division.
``Sec. 20937. The Science, State, Justice, Commerce, and
Related Agencies Appropriations Act, 2006 (Public Law 109-
108), under the heading `National Aeronautics and Space
Administration, Science, Aeronautics and Exploration' is
amended by striking `, of which amounts' and all that follows
through `as amended by Public Law 106-377'.
``Sec. 20938. The Science, State, Justice, Commerce, and
Related Agencies Appropriations Act, 2006 (Public Law 109-
108), under
[[Page H1083]]
the heading `National Aeronautics and Space Administration,
Exploration Capabilities' is amended by striking `, of which
amounts' and all that follows through `as amended by Public
Law 106-377'.
``Sec. 20939. Notwithstanding section 101, or any other
provision of law, no funds shall be used to implement any
Reduction in Force or other involuntary separations (except
for cause) by the National Aeronautics and Space
Administration prior to September 30, 2007.
``Sec. 20940. Any terms, conditions, uses, or authorities
put into effect, available, or exercised pursuant to the
reprogramming notification dated August 10, 2006, relating to
the Department of Justice with respect to the Office of
Justice Programs, the Office of Community Oriented Policing
Services, or the Office on Violence Against Women are hereby
made applicable, available, and effective with respect to
Fiscal Year 2007 appropriations for those Offices.
``Sec. 20941. Section 824(g) of the Foreign Service Act of
1980 (22 U.S.C. 4064(g)) is amended--
``(1) in paragraph (1)--
``(A) in the matter preceding subparagraph (A), by striking
`To facilitate' and all that follows through `the Secretary'
and inserting `The Secretary'; and
``(B) in subparagraph (B), by striking `if' and inserting
`to facilitate the assignment of persons to Iraq and
Afghanistan or to posts vacated by members of the Service
assigned to Iraq and Afghanistan, if';
``(2) in paragraph (2), by striking `subparagraphs (A) or
(B) of such paragraph' and inserting `such subparagraph'; and
``(3) in paragraph (3), by striking `paragraph (1)' and
inserting `paragraph (1)(B)'.
``Sec. 20942. Notwithstanding section 101, the level for
each of the following accounts and activities shall be $0:
`Department of State, Administration of Foreign Affairs,
Centralized Information Technology Modernization Program';
and the grant to the Center for Middle Eastern-Western
Dialogue Trust Fund made available in the Science, State,
Justice, Commerce, and Related Agencies Appropriations Act,
2006 (Public Law 109-108) under the heading `Department of
State, Other, Center for Middle Eastern-Western Dialogue
Trust Fund'.
``Sec. 20943. Notwithstanding section 101, the level for
each of the following accounts shall be as follows:
`Department of State, Administration of Foreign Affairs,
Educational and Cultural Exchange Programs', $445,275,000;
`Department of State, Administration of Foreign Affairs,
Emergencies in the Diplomatic and Consular Service',
$4,940,000; `Department of State, Administration of Foreign
Affairs, Payment to the American Institute in Taiwan',
$15,826,000; `Department of State, International
Organizations, Contributions for International Peacekeeping
Activities', $1,135,275,000; `Related Agency, Broadcasting
Board of Governors, International Broadcasting Operations',
$636,387,000; `Related Agency, Broadcasting Board of
Governors, Broadcasting Capital Improvements', $7,624,000;
and `Related Agencies, Commission on International Religious
Freedom, Salaries and Expenses', $3,000,000.
``Sec. 20944. Notwithstanding any other provision of this
division, the fourth proviso under the heading `Department of
State, Administration of Foreign Affairs, Diplomatic and
Consular Programs' in the Science, State, Justice, Commerce,
and Related Appropriations Act, 2006 (Public Law 109-108) and
section 406 of such Act shall not apply to funds appropriated
by this division.
``Sec. 20945. The appropriation to the Securities and
Exchange Commission pursuant to this division shall be deemed
a regular appropriation for purposes of section 6(b) of the
Securities Act of 1933 (15 U.S.C. 77f(b)) and sections 13(e),
14(g), and 31(k) of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934 (15
U.S.C. 78m(e), 78n(g), and 78ee(k)).
``Sec. 20946. Section 302 of the Universal Service
Antideficiency Temporary Suspension Act (Public Law 108-494;
118 Stat. 3998) is amended by striking `December 31, 2006,'
each place it appears and inserting `December 31, 2007,'.
``Sec. 20947. Notwithstanding section 101, the level for
`Small Business Administration, Salaries and Expenses' shall
be $326,733,000, and section 613 of the Science, State,
Justice, Commerce, and Related Agencies Appropriations Act,
2006 (Public Law 109-108; 119 Stat. 2336) shall not apply to
such funds.
``Sec. 20948. Notwithstanding section 101, the level for
`Small Business Administration, Disaster Loans Program
Account' shall be $113,850,000, to remain available until
expended, which shall be for administrative expenses to carry
out the direct loan program authorized by section 7(b) of the
Small Business Act, of which $112,365,000 may be transferred
to and merged with `Small Business Administration, Salaries
and Expenses', and of which $1,485,000 is for the Office of
Inspector General of the Small Business Administration for
audits and reviews of disaster loans and the disaster loan
program and shall be transferred to and merged with
appropriations for the Office of Inspector General.
``Sec. 20949. Of the unobligated balances available under
the heading `Small Business Administration, Salaries and
Expenses', $6,100,000 is rescinded.
``Sec. 20950. Of the unobligated balances available under
the heading `Small Business Administration, Business Loans
Program Account', $5,000,000 is rescinded.
``Sec. 20951. Of the unobligated balances available under
the heading `Small Business Administration, Disaster Loans
Program Account', $2,300,000 is rescinded.
``CHAPTER 10--TRANSPORTATION, TREASURY, HOUSING AND URBAN DEVELOPMENT,
THE JUDICIARY, THE DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA, AND INDEPENDENT AGENCIES
``Sec. 21001. Of the amounts provided by section 101 for
`Department of Transportation, Office of the Secretary,
Transportation, Planning, Research, and Development', for
activities of the Department of Transportation, up to
$9,900,000 may be made available for the purpose of agency
facility improvements and associated administrative costs as
determined necessary by the Secretary.
``Sec. 21002. (a) Section 44302(f)(1) of title 49, United
States Code, shall be applied by substituting the date
specified in section 106 of this division for `August 31,
2006, and may extend through December 31, 2006'.
``(b) Section 44303(b) of title 49, United States Code,
shall be applied by substituting the date specified in
section 106 of this division for `December 31, 2006'.
``Sec. 21003. Of the funds made available under section
101(a)(2) of Public Law 107-42, $50,000,000 is rescinded.
``Sec. 21004. Notwithstanding section 101, no funds are
provided by this division for activities or reimbursements
described in section 185 of Public Law 109-115.
``Sec. 21005. Notwithstanding section 101, the level for
`Federal Aviation Administration, Operations' shall be
$8,330,750,000, of which $5,627,900,000 shall be derived from
the Airport and Airway Trust Fund, of which no less than
$6,704,223,000 shall be for air traffic organization
activities; no less than $997,718,000 shall be for aviation
regulation and certification activities; not to exceed
$11,641,000 shall be available for commercial space
transportation activities; not to exceed $76,175,000 shall be
available for financial services activities; not to exceed
$85,313,000 shall be available for human resources program
activities; not to exceed $275,156,000 shall be available for
region and center operations and regional coordination
activities; not to exceed $144,617,000 shall be available for
staff offices; and not to exceed $35,907,000 shall be
available for information services.
``Sec. 21006. Notwithstanding section 101, the level for
`Federal Aviation Administration, Research, Engineering, and
Development (Airport and Airway Trust Fund)' shall be
$130,000,000.
``Sec. 21007. Of the amounts provided by section 101 for
limitation on obligations under `Federal Aviation
Administration, Grants-in-Aid for Airports (Liquidation of
Contract Authorization) (Limitation on Obligations) (Airport
and Airway Trust Fund)', not to exceed $74,971,000 shall be
obligated for administrative expenses; up to $17,870,000
shall be available for airport technology research, to remain
available until expended; not less than $10,000,000 shall be
for airport cooperative research; and $10,000,000 shall be
available and transferred to `Office of the Secretary,
Salaries and Expenses' to administer the small community air
service development program to remain available until
expended.
``Sec. 21008. Notwithstanding section 101, the level for
liquidation of contract authorization under `Federal Aviation
Administration, Grants-in-Aid for Airports (Liquidation of
Contract Authorization) (Limitation on Obligations) (Airport
and Airway Trust Fund)' shall be $4,399,000,000.
``Sec. 21009. Of the amounts authorized for the fiscal
year ending September 30, 2007, and prior years under
sections 48103 and 48112 of title 49, United States Code,
$621,000,000 is rescinded.
``Sec. 21010. Notwithstanding section 101, the level for
`Federal Highway Administration, Federal-Aid Highways
(Limitation on Obligations) (Highway Trust Fund)' shall be
$39,086,464,683.
``Sec. 21011. Notwithstanding section 101, sections 110,
112, and 113 of division A of Public Law 109-115 shall not
apply to fiscal year 2007.
``Sec. 21012. Funds appropriated under this division
pursuant to section 1069(y) of Public Law 102-240 shall be
distributed in accordance with the formula set forth in
section 1116(a) of Public Law 109-59.
``Sec. 21013. Notwithstanding section 101, the level for
the limitation on obligations and transfer of contract
authority for `National Highway Traffic Safety
Administration, Operations and Research (Highway Trust Fund)
(Including Transfer of Funds)' shall be $121,232,430:
Provided, That notwithstanding any other provision of law,
whenever an allocation is made of the sums authorized to be
appropriated for expenditure on the Federal lands highway
program, and whenever an apportionment is made of the sums
authorized to be appropriated for the surface transportation
program, the congestion mitigation and air quality
improvement program, the National Highway System, the
Interstate maintenance program, the bridge program, the
Appalachian development highway system, and the equity bonus
program, the Secretary of Transportation shall deduct from
all sums so authorized such sums as may be necessary to fund
this section: Provided further, That funds made available
under this section shall be transferred by the Secretary of
Transportation to and administered by the National Highway
Traffic Safety Administration: Provided further, That the
[[Page H1084]]
Federal share payable on account of any program, project, or
activity carried out with funds made available under this
section shall be 100 percent: Provided further, That the sum
deducted in accordance with this section shall remain
available until expended: Provided further, That all funds
made available under this section shall be subject to any
limitation on obligations for Federal-aid highways and
highway safety construction programs set forth in this
division or any other Act: Provided further, That the
obligation limitation made available for the programs,
projects, and activities for which funds are made available
under this section shall remain available until used and
shall be in addition to the amount of any limitation imposed
on obligations for Federal-aid highway and highway safety
construction programs for future fiscal years: Provided
further, That, notwithstanding any other provision of law,
prior to making any distribution of obligation limitation for
the Federal-aid highway program under section 1102 of Public
Law 109-59 for fiscal year 2007, the Secretary of
Transportation shall not distribute from such limitation
amounts provided under this section: Provided further, That,
notwithstanding any other provision of law, in allocating
funds for the equity bonus program under section 105 of title
23, United States Code, for fiscal year 2007, the Secretary
of Transportation shall make the required calculations under
that section as if this section had not been enacted.
``Sec. 21014. Of the unobligated balances of funds
apportioned to each State under chapter 1 of title 23, United
States Code, $3,471,582,000 is rescinded: Provided, That such
rescission shall not apply to the funds distributed in
accordance with sections 130(f) and 104(b)(5) of title 23,
United States Code; sections 133(d)(1) and 163 of such title,
as in effect on the day before the date of enactment of
Public Law 109-59; and the first sentence of section
133(d)(3)(A) of such title.
``Sec. 21015. Notwithstanding section 101 and section 111,
the level for each of the following accounts under the
heading `Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration' shall
be as follows: `Motor Carrier Safety Operations and Programs
(Liquidation of Contract Authorization) (Limitation on
Obligations) (Highway Trust Fund)', $223,000,000; and `Motor
Carrier Safety Grants (Liquidation of Contract Authorization)
(Limitation on Obligations) (Highway Trust Fund)',
$294,000,000.
``Sec. 21016. Notwithstanding section 101 and section 111,
the level for each of the following accounts under the
heading `National Highway Traffic Safety Administration'
shall be as follows: `Operations and Research (Liquidation of
Contract Authorization) (Limitation on Obligations) (Highway
Trust Fund)', $107,750,000; `National Driver Register
(Liquidation of Contract Authorization) (Limitation on
Obligations) (Highway Trust Fund)', $4,000,000; and `Highway
Traffic Safety Grants (Liquidation of Contract Authorization)
(Limitation on Obligations) (Highway Trust Fund)',
$587,750,000.
``Sec. 21017. Notwithstanding section 101, the level for
`Federal Railroad Administration, Safety and Operations'
shall be $149,570,000.
``Sec. 21018. Notwithstanding section 101, the level for
`Federal Railroad Administration, Railroad Research and
Development' shall be $34,524,000.
``Sec. 21019. Notwithstanding section 101, the level for
`Federal Railroad Administration, Efficiency Incentive Grants
to the National Railroad Passenger Corporation' shall be
$31,300,000 and section 135 of division A of Public Law 109-
115 shall not apply to fiscal year 2007.
``Sec. 21020. Notwithstanding section 101, no funds are
appropriated under this division for `Federal Railroad
Administration, Alaska Railroad Rehabilitation'.
``Sec. 21021. Notwithstanding section 101 and section 111,
the level for each of the following accounts under the
heading `Federal Transit Administration' shall be as follows:
`Administrative Expenses', $85,000,000; `Research and
University Research Centers', $61,000,000; and `Capital
Investment Grants', $1,566,000,000.
``Sec. 21022. Notwithstanding section 101, the level for
the liquidation of contract authorizations for `Federal
Transit Administration, Formula and Bus Grants (Liquidation
of Contract Authorization)' available for payment of
obligations incurred in carrying out the provisions of
sections 5305, 5307, 5308, 5309, 5310, 5311, 5316, 5317,
5320, 5335, 5339, and 5340 of title 49, United States Code,
and section 3038 of Public Law 105-178 shall be
$4,660,000,000, to be derived from the Mass Transit Account
of the Highway Trust Fund and to remain available until
expended.
``Sec. 21023. Notwithstanding section 101, the level for
the limitation on obligations for `Federal Transit
Administration, Formula and Bus Grants (Liquidation of
Contract Authorization) (Limitation on Obligations)
(Including Transfer of Funds)' shall be $7,262,775,000:
Provided, That no funds made available to modernize fixed
guideway systems shall be transferred to `Capital Investment
Grants'.
``Sec. 21024. Notwithstanding any other provision of law,
funds appropriated or limited under this division and made
available to carry out the new fixed guideway program of the
Federal Transit Administration shall be allocated at the
discretion of the Administrator of the Federal Transit
Administration for projects authorized under subsections (a)
through (c) of section 3043 of Public Law 109-59 and for
activities authorized under section 5309 of title 49, United
States Code.
``Sec. 21025. Notwithstanding section 101, the level for
`Maritime Administration, Operations and Training' shall be
$111,127,000.
``Sec. 21026. Of the unobligated balances under the
heading `Maritime Administration, National Defense Tank
Vessel Construction Program', $74,400,000 is rescinded.
``Sec. 21027. Of the unobligated balances under the
heading `Maritime Administration, Ship Construction',
$2,000,000 is rescinded.
``Sec. 21028. Notwithstanding section 101, the level for
each of the following accounts under the heading `Pipeline
and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration' shall be as
follows: `Administrative Expenses', $18,000,000; `Hazardous
Materials Safety', $26,663,000; and `Pipeline Safety
(Pipeline Safety Fund) (Oil Spill Liability Trust Fund)',
$74,832,000, of which $14,850,000 shall be derived from the
Oil Spill Liability Trust Fund and shall remain available
until September 30, 2009, of which $59,982,000 shall be
derived from the Pipeline Safety Fund, of which $24,000,000
shall remain available until September 30, 2009.
``Sec. 21029. Notwithstanding section 101, the level for
`Research and Innovative Technology Administration, Research
and Development' shall be $7,716,260, of which $2,000,000
shall be for the air transportation statistics program.
``Sec. 21030. Notwithstanding section 101, the level for
`Department of Transportation, Office of Inspector General,
Salaries and Expenses' shall be $63,643,000.
``Sec. 21031. Notwithstanding section 101, the level for
the `National Transportation Safety Board, Salaries and
Expenses' shall be $78,854,000.
``Sec. 21032. Of the available unobligated balances made
available to the `National Transportation Safety Board' under
Public Law 106-246, $1,000,000 is rescinded.
``Sec. 21033. Notwithstanding section 101, the level for
`Department of Housing and Urban Development, Public and
Indian Housing, Tenant-Based Rental Assistance' shall be
$15,920,000,000, to remain available until expended, of which
$11,727,000,000 shall be available on October 1, 2006, and
notwithstanding section 109, $4,193,000,000 shall be
available on October 1, 2007: Provided, That paragraph (1)
under such heading in Public Law 109-115 (119 Stat. 2440)
shall not apply to funds appropriated by this division:
Provided further, That of the amounts available for such
heading, $14,436,200,000 shall be for renewals of expiring
section 8 tenant-based annual contributions contracts
(including renewals of enhanced vouchers under any provision
of law authorizing such assistance under section 8(t) of the
United States Housing Act of 1937, as amended (42 U.S.C. 1437
et seq.) (`the Act' herein)): Provided further, That
notwithstanding any other provision of law, from amounts
provided under the second proviso under this section the
Secretary shall, for the calendar year 2007 funding cycle,
provide renewal funding for each public housing agency based
on voucher management system (VMS) leasing and cost data for
the most recently completed period of 12 consecutive months
for which the Secretary determines the data is verifiable and
complete, prior to prorations, and by applying the 2007
Annual Adjustment Factor as established by the Secretary, and
by making any necessary adjustments for the costs associated
with the first-time renewal of tenant protection or HOPE VI
vouchers or vouchers that were not in use during the 12-month
period in order to be available to meet a commitment pursuant
to section 8(o)(13) of the Act: Provided further, That the
Secretary shall, to the extent necessary to stay within the
amount provided under the second proviso under this section,
pro rate each public housing agency's allocation otherwise
established pursuant to this section: Provided further, That
except as provided in the following proviso, the entire
amount provided under the second proviso under this section
shall be obligated to the public housing agencies based on
the allocation and pro rata method described above: Provided
further, That public housing agencies participating in the
Moving to Work demonstration shall be funded pursuant to
their Moving to Work agreements and shall be subject to the
same pro rata adjustments under the previous proviso:
Provided further, That from amounts provided under the second
proviso of this section up to $100,000,000 shall be available
only: (1) for adjustments for public housing agencies that
experienced a significant increase, as determined by the
Secretary, in renewal costs resulting from unforeseen
circumstances or from the portability under section 8(r) of
the Act of tenant-based rental assistance; and (2) for
adjustments for public housing agencies that could experience
a significant decrease in voucher funding that could result
in the risk of loss of voucher units due to the shift to
using VMS data based on a 12-month period: Provided further,
That none of the funds provided under the second proviso of
this section may be used to support a total number of unit
months under lease which exceeds a public housing agency's
authorized level of units under contract.
``Sec. 21034. Notwithstanding section 101, the level for
each of the following accounts for Public and Indian Housing
of the Department of Housing and Urban Development shall be
as follows: `Project-Based Rental Assistance',
$5,976,417,000, of which $5,829,303,000 shall be for
activities specified in paragraph (1) under such heading in
Public Law 109-115 (119 Stat. 2442); `Public Housing
Operating Fund', $3,864,000,000; and `Indian Housing Loan
Guarantee Fund Program Account',
[[Page H1085]]
$6,000,000: Provided, That such funds are available to
subsidize total loan principal, any part of which is to be
guaranteed, not to exceed $251,000,000.
``Sec. 21035. Of the unobligated balances, including
recaptures and carryover, remaining from funds appropriated
under the headings referred to under the heading `Department
of Housing and Urban Development, Public and Indian Housing,
Housing Certificate Fund' in Public Law 109-115 (119 Stat.
2442) for fiscal year 2006 and prior years, $1,650,000,000 is
rescinded: Provided, That the provisions under such heading
shall be applied to such rescission by substituting
`September 30, 2007' for `September 30, 2006' and `2007
funding cycle' for `2006 funding cycle'.
``Sec. 21036. None of the funds appropriated by this
division may be used for the following activities under the
heading `Department of Housing and Urban Development, Public
and Indian Housing' in Public Law 109-115: the activities
specified in the last three provisos under the heading
`Public Housing Capital Fund' (119 Stat. 2444); and the first
activity specified in the second proviso under the heading
`Native American Housing Block Grants' (119 Stat. 2445).
``Sec. 21037. Notwithstanding section 101, the level for
each of the following accounts for Community Planning and
Development of the Department of Housing and Urban
Development shall be as follows: `Community Development
Fund', $3,771,900,000, of which $3,710,916,000 shall be for
carrying out the community development block grant program
under title I of the Housing and Community Development Act of
1974, as amended: Provided, That none of the funds made
available by this section for such account may be used for
grants for the Economic Development Initiative, neighborhood
initiatives, or YouthBuild program activities; `Self-Help and
Assisted Homeownership Opportunity Program', $49,390,000, of
which $19,800,000 shall be for the Self Help Homeownership
Opportunity Program as authorized under section 11 of the
Housing Opportunity Program Extension Act of 1996, as
amended, and $29,590,000 shall be made available through a
competition for activities authorized by section 4 of the HUD
Demonstration Act of 1993 (42 U.S.C. 9816 note); and
`Homeless Assistance Grants', $1,441,600,000.
``Sec. 21038. None of the funds appropriated by this
division may be used for activities specified in the first
proviso under the heading `Department of Housing and Urban
Development, Housing Programs, Housing for the Elderly' in
Public Law 109-115 (119 Stat. 2452).
``Sec. 21039. The first proviso in the first paragraph
under the heading `Department of Housing and Urban
Development, Federal Housing Administration, General and
Special Risk Program Account' in Public Law 109-115 (119
Stat. 2454) shall be applied in fiscal year 2007 by
substituting ``$45,000,000,000'' for ``$35,000,000,000''.
``Sec. 21040. Notwithstanding section 101, the level for
`Department of Housing and Urban Development, Policy
Development and Research, Research and Technology' shall be
$50,087,000: Provided, That none of the funds made available
by this section for such account may be used for activities
under the first four provisos under such heading in Public
Law 109-115 (119 Stat. 2455).
``Sec. 21041. Funds appropriated by this division for
`Department of Housing and Urban Development, Office of Lead
Hazard Control, Lead Hazard Reduction' shall be made
available without regard to the limitations that are set
forth after `needs' in the second proviso under such heading
in Public Law 109-115 (119 Stat. 2457)''.
``Sec. 21042. The provisions of title II of the McKinney-
Vento Homeless Assistance Act (42 U.S.C. 11311 et seq.) shall
continue in effect, notwithstanding section 209 of such Act,
through the earlier of (1) the date specified in section 106
of this division, or (2) the date of the enactment into law
of an authorization Act relating to the McKinney-Vento
Homeless Assistance Act.
``Sec. 21043. (a) Section 579 of the Multifamily Assisted
Housing Reform and Affordability Act of 1997 (42 U.S.C. 1437f
note) is amended--
``(1) in subsection (a)(1), by striking `October 1, 2006'
and inserting `October 1, 2011', and
``(2) in subsection (b), by striking `October 1, 2006' and
inserting `October 1, 2011'.
``(b) The repeal made by section 579(a)(1) of the
Multifamily Assisted Housing Reform and Affordability Act of
1997 shall be deemed not to have taken effect before the date
of the enactment of the Revised Continuing Appropriations
Resolution, 2007, and subtitle A of such Act shall be in
effect as if no such repeal had been made before such date of
enactment.
``Sec. 21044. Notwithstanding the limitation in the first
sentence of section 255(g) of the National Housing Act (12
U.S.C. 1715z-20(g)), the Secretary of Housing and Urban
Development may, until the date specified in section 106 of
this division, insure and enter into commitments to insure
mortgages under section 255 of the National Housing Act (12
U.S.C. 1715z-20(g)).
``Sec. 21045. Section 24 of the United States Housing Act
of 1937 (42 U.S.C. 1437v) is amended--
``(1) in subsection (m)(1), by striking `2003' and
inserting `2007'; and
``(2) in subsection (o), by striking ``September 30, 2006''
and inserting ``September 30, 2007''.
``Sec. 21046. Section 710 of Public Law 109-115 (119 Stat.
2491) shall be applied to funds appropriated by this division
by substituting `2007' and `30 days' for `2006' and `60
days', respectively.
``Sec. 21047. Section 711 of Public Law 109-115 (119 Stat.
2492) shall be applied to funds appropriated by this division
by substituting `2007' for `2006' each place it appears, and
by substituting `September 30, 2008' for `September 30,
2007'.
``Sec. 21048. Notwithstanding section 101, the level for
`Department of the Treasury, Departmental Offices, Salaries
and Expenses' shall be $215,167,000, of which not less than
$23,826,000 shall be for the following increases for the
following activities: $9,352,000 to expand the overseas
presence of the Department of the Treasury; $3,761,000 for
intelligence analysts; $1,000,000 for additional secure
workspace for intelligence analysts; $2,050,000 to support
the Department of the Treasury's participation as co-lead
agency in the Iraq Threat Finance Cell; $1,483,000 to support
economic sanctions efforts against terrorist networks;
$946,000 to support economic sanctions efforts against
proliferators of Weapons of Mass Destruction; $542,000 for
General Counsel support of the Office of Terrorism and
Financial Intelligence; $492,000 for Chief Counsel support of
the Office of Foreign Assets Control; and $4,200,000 to
reimburse the United States Secret Service for the security
detail to the Secretary of the Treasury.
``Sec. 21049. Notwithstanding section 101, the level for
`Department of the Treasury, Departmental Offices,
Department-wide Systems and Capital Investments Programs'
shall be $30,268,000, of which not less than $6,100,000 shall
be for an increase for the Treasury Foreign Intelligence
Network.
``Sec. 21050. Notwithstanding section 101, the level for
each of the following accounts of the Internal Revenue
Service shall be as follows: `Taxpayer Services',
$2,142,042,391; `Enforcement', $4,708,440,879; `Operations
Support', $3,461,204,720; `Health Insurance Tax Credit
Administration', $14,846,000; and `Business Systems
Modernization', $212,310,000.
``Sec. 21051. Funds appropriated by section 101 of this
division for the Internal Revenue Service may be obligated in
the account and budget structure set forth in title II of
H.R. 5576 (109th Congress), as passed by the House of
Representatives.
``Sec. 21052. Funds for the Internal Revenue Service for
fiscal year 2007 under the `Taxpayer Services',
`Enforcement', and `Operations Support' accounts may be
transferred between the accounts and among budget activities
to the extent necessary to implement the restructuring of the
Internal Revenue Service accounts after notice of the amount
and purpose of the transfer is provided to the Committees on
Appropriations of the House of Representatives and Senate and
a period of 30 days has elapsed: Provided, That the
limitation on transfers is 10 percent in fiscal year 2007.
``Sec. 21053. Funds appropriated by this division for
`Internal Revenue Service, Business Systems Modernization'
are available for obligation without the prior approval of
the Committees on Appropriations of the House of
Representatives and the Senate for employee salaries and
expenses.
``Sec. 21054. (a) Notwithstanding section 101, the level
for `The Judiciary, Courts of Appeals, District Courts, and
Other Judicial Services, Salaries and Expenses' shall be
$4,498,130,000, of which $20,371,000 shall be available for
critically understaffed workload associated with immigration
and other law enforcement needs.
``(b) Notwithstanding section 402 of Public Law 109-115, of
the amount provided by this section, not to exceed
$80,954,000 shall be available for transfer between accounts
to maintain fiscal year 2006 operating levels.
``Sec. 21055. Notwithstanding section 101, within the
amount provided by this division for `The Judiciary,
Administrative Office of the United States Courts, Salaries
and Expenses', $990,000 shall not be required for the
National Academy of Public Administration for a review of the
financial and management procedures of the Federal Judiciary.
``Sec. 21056. Section 203(c) of the Judicial Improvements
Act of 1990 (Public Law 101-650; 28 U.S.C. 133 note), is
amended--
``(1) in the second sentence, by inserting `the district of
Kansas,' after `Except with respect to'; and
``(2) by inserting after the second sentence the following:
`The first vacancy in the office of district judge in the
district of Kansas occurring 16 years or more after the
confirmation date of the judge named to fill the temporary
judgeship created for such district under this subsection,
shall not be filled.'.
``Sec. 21057. (a) Notwithstanding section 101, the level
for `Office of National Drug Control Policy, Counterdrug
Technology Assessment Center' shall be $20,000,000, which
shall remain available until, and obligated and expended by,
September 30, 2008, consisting of $10,000,000 for
counternarcotics research and development projects, of which
up to $1,000,000 is to be directed to supply reduction
activities, and $10,000,000 for the continued operation of
the technology transfer program.
``(b) The Office of National Drug Control Policy shall
expend funds provided for `Counterdrug Technology Assessment
Center' by Public Law 109-115 in accordance with the Joint
Explanatory Statement of the Committee of Conference for
Public Law 109-115 (House Report 109-307) within 60 days
after the date of the enactment of this section.
``(c) Funding for counternarcotics research and development
projects shall be available
[[Page H1086]]
for transfer to other Federal departments or agencies within
45 days after the date of the enactment of this section. Any
unexpended funds from previous fiscal years shall be expended
in fiscal year 2007 to reinstate the demand instrumentation
program as instructed in the Joint Explanatory Statement of
the Committee of Conference for Public Law 109-115 (House
Report 109-307). The Director of the Office of National Drug
Control Policy shall submit to the Committees on
Appropriations of the House of Representatives and the Senate
an accounting of fiscal year 2006 funds, including funds that
are unexpended for fiscal year 2007.
``Sec. 21058. The structure of any of the offices or
components within the Office of National Drug Control Policy
shall remain as they were on October 1, 2006, and none of the
funds appropriated or otherwise made available by this
division may be used to implement a reorganization of offices
within the Office of National Drug Control Policy without the
explicit approval of the Committees on Appropriations of the
House of Representatives and the Senate.
``Sec. 21059. (a) Funds appropriated or otherwise made
available by this division for `Federal Drug Control
Programs, High Intensity Drug Trafficking Areas Program'
shall remain available until September 30, 2008.
``(b) The Office of National Drug Control Policy shall
submit a plan to the Committees on Appropriations of the
House of Representatives and the Senate for the initial High
Intensity Drug Trafficking Areas allocation funding within 90
days after the date of the enactment of this section and the
discretionary High Intensity Drug Trafficking Areas funding
within 150 days after the date of the enactment of this
section. Within the discretionary funding amount, $2,000,000
shall be available for new counties, not including previously
funded counties, with priority given to meritorious
applicants who have submitted applications previously and
have not been funded.
``Sec. 21060. Notwithstanding section 101, the level for
`Election Assistance Commission, Salaries and Expenses' shall
be $16,236,000, of which $4,950,000 shall be transferred to
the National Institute of Standards and Technology for
election reform activities authorized under the Help America
Vote Act of 2002.
``Sec. 21061. Notwithstanding section 101, the level for
each of the following accounts for the General Services
Administration shall be as follows: `Operating Expenses',
$82,975,000; and `Office of Inspector General', $52,312,000.
``Sec. 21062. Notwithstanding GSA Order ADM 5440 of
December 21, 2006, the Office of Governmentwide Policy and
the Office of Congressional and Intergovernmental Affairs
shall continue to exist and operate separately, and none of
the funds appropriated or otherwise made available by this
division or any other Act may be used to establish or operate
an Office of Congressional and Intergovernmental Affairs and
Governmentwide Policy or any combination thereof without the
explicit approval of the Committees on Appropriations of the
House of Representatives and the Senate.
``Sec. 21063. Notwithstanding section 101--
``(1) the aggregate amount of new obligational authority
provided under the heading `General Services Administration,
Real Property Activities, Federal Buildings Fund, Limitations
on Availability of Revenue' for Federal buildings and
courthouses and other purposes of the Fund shall be
$7,598,426,000, including repayment of debt, of which not
less than $280,872,000 shall be for courthouse construction,
and not less than $96,539,000 shall be for border station
construction, and of which $89,061,000 shall be from the
additional amount provided by paragraph (2) of this
subsection;
``(2) for an additional amount to be deposited in the
`General Services Administration, Real Property Activities,
Federal Buildings Fund', $89,061,000 is appropriated, out of
any money in the Treasury not otherwise appropriated;
``(3) the Administrator of General Services is authorized
to initiate design, construction, repair, alteration,
leasing, and other projects through existing authorities of
the Administrator: Provided, That the General Services
Administration shall submit a detailed plan, by project,
regarding the use of funds to the Committees on
Appropriations of the House of Representatives and the Senate
within 30 days of enactment of this section; and
``(4) none of the funds appropriated or otherwise made
available in this division for the `General Services
Administration, Real Property Activities, Federal Buildings
Fund' may be obligated for the Coast Guard consolidation and
development of St. Elizabeths campus in the District of
Columbia.
``Sec. 21064. Notwithstanding section 101, the level for
`Merit Systems Protection Board, Salaries and Expenses' shall
be $35,814,000, together with not to exceed $2,579,000 for
administrative expenses to adjudicate retirement appeals to
be transferred from the Civil Service Retirement and
Disability Fund in amounts determined by the Merit Systems
Protection Board.
``Sec. 21065. Notwithstanding section 101, the level for
`National Archives and Records Administration, Electronic
Records Archives' shall be $45,214,000.
``Sec. 21066. (a) Notwithstanding section 101, the level
for `National Archives and Records Administration, Repairs
and Restoration' shall be $9,120,000.
``(b) Within the amount provided by this section, the
following amounts shall not be required:
``(1) $1,485,000 for construction of a new regional
archives and records facility.
``(2) $990,000 for repair and restoration of a plaza
surrounding a presidential library.
``Sec. 21067. (a) Notwithstanding section 101, the level
for `National Archives and Records Administration, Operating
Expenses' shall be $278,235,000.
``(b) Within the amount provided by this section,
$1,980,000 shall not be required for the initial move of
records, staffing, and operations of a presidential library.
``Sec. 21068. Section 403(f) of Public Law 103-356 (31
U.S.C. 501 note) shall be applied by substituting the date
specified in section 106 of this division for `October 1,
2006'.
``Sec. 21069. The text of section 405 of the Ethics in
Government Act of 1978 (5 U.S.C. App.) is amended to read as
follows: `There are authorized to be appropriated to carry
out this title such sums as may be necessary for fiscal year
2007'.
``Sec. 21070. Notwithstanding section 101, the level for
`Office of Personnel Management, Salaries and Expenses' shall
be $111,095,000, of which $6,913,170 shall remain available
until expended for the Enterprise Human Resources Integration
project and $1,435,500 shall remain available until expended
for the Human Resources Line of Business project; and in
addition $112,017,000 for administrative expenses, to be
transferred from the appropriate trust funds of the Office of
Personnel Management without regard to other statutes,
including direct procurement of printed materials, for the
retirement and insurance programs, of which $13,000,000 shall
remain available until expended for the cost of automating
the retirement recordkeeping systems.
``Sec. 21071. Notwithstanding section 101, the level for
`Office of Special Counsel, Salaries and Expenses' shall be
$15,407,000.
``Sec. 21072. Notwithstanding section 101, the level for
`United States Postal Service, Payment to the Postal Service
Fund' shall be $29,000,000; and, in addition, $6,915,000,
which shall not be available for obligation until October 1,
2007, and shall be in addition to amounts provided under
section 109.
``Sec. 21073. (a) Notwithstanding section 101, the level
for `Federal Payment to the Court Services and Offender
Supervision Agency for the District of Columbia', shall be
$209,594,000, of which $133,476,000 shall be for necessary
expenses of the Community Supervision and Sex Offender
Registration, $45,220,000 shall be available to the Pretrial
Services Agency, and $30,898,000 shall be transferred to the
Public Defender Service of the District of Columbia.
``(b) Notwithstanding section 101, the level for `Federal
Payment to the Office of the Chief Financial Officer of the
District of Columbia' shall be $20,000,000, and shall be used
only for upgrading and expanding public transportation
capacity, in accordance with an expenditure plan submitted by
the Mayor of the District of Columbia not later than 60 days
after the enactment of this section which details the
activities to be carried out with such Federal Payment. Such
Federal Payment may be applied to expenditures incurred as of
October 1, 2006.
``(c) Notwithstanding section 101, any appropriation or
funds made available to the District of Columbia pursuant to
this division for `Federal Payment for School Improvement'
which are made available to expand quality public charter
schools in the District of Columbia shall remain available
until expended to the extent that the appropriation or funds
are used for public charter school credit enhancement and
direct loans.
``(d) Notwithstanding section 101, no appropriation or
funds shall be made available to the District of Columbia
pursuant to this division with respect to any of the
following items in the District of Columbia Appropriations
Act, 2006 (Public Law 109-115; 119 Stat. 2508 et seq.):
``(1) The item relating to `Federal Payment for the
National Guard Youth Challenge Program'.
``(2) The item relating to `Federal Payment for Marriage
Development and Improvement'.
``(e) Notwithstanding section 101, the level for `Federal
Payment for Emergency Planning and Security Costs in the
District of Columbia' shall be $8,533,000.
``(f) Notwithstanding section 101, the level for `Defender
Services in District of Columbia Courts' shall be
$43,475,000.
``(g) Notwithstanding any other provision of this division,
except section 106, the District of Columbia may expend local
funds for programs and activities under the heading `District
of Columbia Funds' for such programs and activities under
title V of H.R. 5576 (109th Congress), as passed by the House
of Representatives, at the rate set forth under `District of
Columbia Funds, Summary of Expenses' as included in the
Fiscal Year 2007 Proposed Budget and Financial Plan submitted
to the Congress by the District of Columbia on June 5, 2006
as amended on January 16, 2007.
``(h) Section 203(c) of the 2005 District of Columbia
Omnibus Authorization Act (Public Law 109-356; 120 Stat.
2038) is amended by striking `6 months' and inserting `1
year'.
``(i) Not later than 60 days after the enactment of this
section, the Mayor of the District of Columbia shall submit a
plan for the expenditure of the funds made available to the
District of Columbia pursuant to this division to the
Committees on Appropriations of the House of Representatives
and the Senate.
``Sec. 21074. Within the amount provided by this division
for `Other Federal Drug Control
[[Page H1087]]
Programs', the following amount shall not be required:
$1,980,000 as a directed grant to the Community Anti-Drug
Coalitions of America for the National Community Anti-Drug
Coalition Institute, as authorized in chapter 2 of the
National Narcotics Leadership Act of 1988, as amended.
``Sec. 21075. Within the amount provided by this division
for `Other Federal Drug Control Programs', $1,980,000 is
provided, as authorized, under the Drug-Free Communities
Support Program, for training, technical assistance,
evaluation, research, and capacity building for coalitions.
``Sec. 21076. Notwithstanding section 101, no funds shall
be appropriated or otherwise made available by this division
for the following accounts of the Department of the Treasury:
`Air Transportation Stabilization Program Account'; and
`Treasury Building and Annex Repair and Restoration'.
``Sec. 21077. For purposes of this division, section 206
of Public Law 109-115 shall not apply.
``Sec. 21078. (a) The Federal Election Commission may
charge and collect fees for attending or otherwise
participating in a conference sponsored by the Commission,
and notwithstanding section 3302 of title 31, United States
Code, any amounts received from such fees during a fiscal
year shall be credited to and merged with the amounts
appropriated or otherwise made available to the Commission
during the year, and shall be available for use during the
year for the costs of sponsoring such conferences.
``(b) This section shall apply with respect to fiscal year
2007 and each succeeding fiscal year.
``CHAPTER 11--DEPARTMENT OF HOMELAND SECURITY
``Sec. 21101. Not to exceed $155,600,000 shall be
transferred to `Department of Homeland Security,
Transportation Security Administration, Expenses', to
liquidate obligations incurred against funds appropriated in
fiscal years 2002 and 2003, of which $150,300,000 shall be
from unobligated balances currently available to the
Transportation Security Administration, $300,000 shall be
from unobligated balances currently available to the Office
of the Secretary and Executive Management, and $5,000,000
shall be from unobligated balances currently available to the
Under Secretary for Management: Provided, That the
Transportation Security Administration shall not utilize any
unobligated balances from the following programs: screener
partnership program; explosive detection system purchase;
explosive detection system installation; checkpoint support;
aviation regulation and other enforcement; air cargo; air
cargo research and development; and operation integration:
Provided further, That of the funds transferred, $2,000,000
shall be from the `Secure Flight Program'; $100,000 shall be
from the `Immediate Office of the Deputy Secretary'; $100,000
shall be from the `Office of Legislative and
Intergovernmental Affairs'; $100,000 shall be from the
`Office of Public Affairs'; and $5,000,000 shall be from
`MAX-HR Human Resource System'.
``This division may be cited as the `Continuing
Appropriations Resolution, 2007'.''.
Mr. PRICE of Georgia. Mr. Speaker, I demand the question of
consideration.
The SPEAKER pro tempore (Mr. DeFazio). The gentleman from Georgia
demands the question of consideration. Under clause 3 of rule XVI, the
question is: Will the House now consider the joint resolution?
The question was taken; and the Speaker pro tempore announced that
the noes appeared to have it.
Recorded Vote
Mr. OBEY. Mr. Speaker, I demand a recorded vote.
A recorded vote was ordered.
Mr. PRICE of Georgia. I ask for a division on that vote, Mr. Speaker.
The SPEAKER pro tempore. A recorded vote has already been ordered.
The vote will proceed. Members will record their vote by electronic
device. It will be a 15-minute vote.
The vote was taken by electronic device, and there were--ayes 222,
noes 179, not voting 33, as follows:
[Roll No. 68]
AYES--222
Allen
Altmire
Andrews
Arcuri
Baca
Baird
Baldwin
Barrow
Bean
Becerra
Berkley
Berman
Berry
Bishop (GA)
Bishop (NY)
Blumenauer
Boren
Boswell
Boucher
Boyd (FL)
Boyda (KS)
Brady (PA)
Braley (IA)
Brown, Corrine
Capps
Capuano
Cardoza
Carnahan
Carson
Castor
Chandler
Clarke
Clay
Cleaver
Clyburn
Cohen
Conyers
Cooper
Costa
Costello
Courtney
Cramer
Crowley
Cuellar
Cummings
Davis (AL)
Davis (CA)
Davis (IL)
Davis, Lincoln
DeFazio
DeGette
DeLauro
Dicks
Dingell
Doggett
Donnelly
Doyle
Edwards
Ellison
Ellsworth
Emanuel
Engel
Eshoo
Etheridge
Fattah
Filner
Frank (MA)
Giffords
Gillibrand
Gonzalez
Gordon
Green, Al
Green, Gene
Grijalva
Gutierrez
Hall (NY)
Hare
Harman
Hastings (FL)
Herseth
Hill
Hinchey
Hinojosa
Hirono
Hodes
Holden
Holt
Honda
Hooley
Hoyer
Inslee
Israel
Issa
Jackson (IL)
Jackson-Lee (TX)
Jefferson
Johnson (GA)
Johnson, E. B.
Kagen
Kanjorski
Kaptur
Kildee
Kilpatrick
Kind
Klein (FL)
Kucinich
Lampson
Langevin
Lantos
Larsen (WA)
Larson (CT)
Lee
Levin
Lewis (GA)
Lipinski
Loebsack
Lofgren, Zoe
Lowey
Lynch
Mahoney (FL)
Markey
Marshall
Matheson
Matsui
McCarthy (NY)
McCollum (MN)
McGovern
McIntyre
McNerney
McNulty
Meehan
Meek (FL)
Meeks (NY)
Melancon
Michaud
Millender-McDonald
Miller (NC)
Miller, George
Mitchell
Mollohan
Moore (KS)
Moore (WI)
Moran (VA)
Murphy (CT)
Murphy, Patrick
Murtha
Nadler
Napolitano
Neal (MA)
Oberstar
Obey
Olver
Pallone
Pascrell
Pastor
Payne
Perlmutter
Peterson (MN)
Pomeroy
Porter
Price (NC)
Rahall
Ramstad
Rangel
Reyes
Rodriguez
Ross
Rothman
Roybal-Allard
Ruppersberger
Ryan (OH)
Salazar
Sanchez, Linda T.
Sanchez, Loretta
Sarbanes
Schakowsky
Schiff
Schwartz
Scott (GA)
Scott (VA)
Serrano
Sestak
Shea-Porter
Sherman
Shuler
Simpson
Sires
Skelton
Slaughter
Smith (WA)
Snyder
Solis
Space
Spratt
Stupak
Sutton
Tanner
Tauscher
Taylor
Thompson (CA)
Thompson (MS)
Tierney
Towns
Udall (CO)
Udall (NM)
Van Hollen
Velazquez
Visclosky
Walz (MN)
Wasserman Schultz
Waters
Watson
Watt
Waxman
Weiner
Welch (VT)
Wexler
Wilson (OH)
Woolsey
Wu
Wynn
Yarmuth
NOES--179
Aderholt
Akin
Bachmann
Bachus
Baker
Barrett (SC)
Bartlett (MD)
Barton (TX)
Biggert
Bilbray
Bilirakis
Bishop (UT)
Blackburn
Blunt
Boehner
Bonner
Bono
Boozman
Boustany
Brady (TX)
Brown (SC)
Buchanan
Burgess
Burton (IN)
Calvert
Camp (MI)
Campbell (CA)
Cannon
Cantor
Capito
Carter
Castle
Chabot
Coble
Cole (OK)
Conaway
Crenshaw
Cubin
Davis (KY)
Davis, David
Davis, Tom
Deal (GA)
Dent
Diaz-Balart, L.
Diaz-Balart, M.
Doolittle
Drake
Dreier
Duncan
Ehlers
Emerson
English (PA)
Everett
Fallin
Feeney
Ferguson
Flake
Forbes
Fortenberry
Foxx
Franks (AZ)
Frelinghuysen
Gallegly
Garrett (NJ)
Gerlach
Gillmor
Gingrey
Gohmert
Goode
Goodlatte
Granger
Graves
Hall (TX)
Hayes
Heller
Hensarling
Herger
Hobson
Hoekstra
Hulshof
Hunter
Inglis (SC)
Jindal
Johnson (IL)
Jones (NC)
Jordan
Keller
King (IA)
Kingston
Kirk
Kline (MN)
Knollenberg
Kuhl (NY)
LaHood
Lamborn
Latham
Lewis (CA)
Lewis (KY)
Linder
LoBiondo
Lucas
Lungren, Daniel E.
Mack
Manzullo
Marchant
McCarthy (CA)
McCaul (TX)
McCotter
McHenry
McHugh
McKeon
McMorris Rodgers
Mica
Miller (FL)
Miller (MI)
Miller, Gary
Moran (KS)
Murphy, Tim
Musgrave
Neugebauer
Nunes
Pearce
Pence
Petri
Pickering
Pitts
Platts
Poe
Price (GA)
Pryce (OH)
Putnam
Radanovich
Regula
Rehberg
Reichert
Renzi
Rogers (AL)
Rogers (KY)
Rogers (MI)
Rohrabacher
Ros-Lehtinen
Roskam
Royce
Ryan (WI)
Sali
Saxton
Schmidt
Sensenbrenner
Sessions
Shadegg
Shays
Shimkus
Shuster
Smith (NE)
Smith (NJ)
Smith (TX)
Souder
Stearns
Tancredo
Terry
Thornberry
Tiahrt
Tiberi
Turner
Upton
Walberg
Walden (OR)
Walsh (NY)
Wamp
Weldon (FL)
Weller
Westmoreland
Whitfield
Wicker
Wilson (NM)
Wilson (SC)
Wolf
Young (AK)
Young (FL)
NOT VOTING--33
Abercrombie
Ackerman
Alexander
Brown-Waite, Ginny
Butterfield
Buyer
Carney
Culberson
Davis, Jo Ann
Delahunt
Farr
Fossella
Gilchrest
Hastert
Hastings (WA)
Higgins
Johnson, Sam
Jones (OH)
Kennedy
King (NY)
LaTourette
Maloney (NY)
McCrery
McDermott
Myrick
Norwood
Ortiz
Paul
Peterson (PA)
Reynolds
Rush
Stark
Sullivan
{time} 1258
Mrs. WILSON of New Mexico, Mr. ROHRABACHER and Mr. SALI changed their
vote from ``aye'' to ``no.''
Mr. KUCINICH and Ms. MOORE of Wisconsin changed their vote from
``no'' to ``aye.''
So the question of consideration was decided in the affirmative.
The result of the vote was announced as above recorded.
Mr. ISSA. Mr. Speaker, I move to reconsider the vote.
Motion to Table Offered by Mr. Obey
Mr. OBEY. Mr. Speaker, I move to table the motion.
[[Page H1088]]
The SPEAKER pro tempore. The question is on the motion to table the
motion to reconsider.
The question was taken; and the Speaker pro tempore announced that
the ayes appeared to have it.
Recorded Vote
Mr. ISSA. Mr. Speaker, I demand a recorded vote.
A recorded vote was ordered.
The vote was taken by electronic device, and there were--ayes 226,
noes 180, not voting 29, as follows:
[Roll No. 69]
AYES--226
Abercrombie
Ackerman
Allen
Altmire
Andrews
Arcuri
Baca
Baird
Baldwin
Barrow
Bean
Becerra
Berkley
Berman
Berry
Bishop (GA)
Bishop (NY)
Blumenauer
Boren
Boswell
Boucher
Boyd (FL)
Boyda (KS)
Brady (PA)
Braley (IA)
Brown, Corrine
Butterfield
Capps
Capuano
Cardoza
Carnahan
Carney
Carson
Castor
Chandler
Clarke
Clay
Cleaver
Clyburn
Cohen
Conyers
Cooper
Costa
Costello
Courtney
Cramer
Crowley
Cuellar
Cummings
Davis (AL)
Davis (CA)
Davis (IL)
Davis, Lincoln
DeFazio
DeGette
Delahunt
DeLauro
Dicks
Dingell
Doggett
Donnelly
Doyle
Edwards
Ellison
Ellsworth
Emanuel
Engel
Eshoo
Etheridge
Fattah
Filner
Frank (MA)
Gillibrand
Gonzalez
Gordon
Green, Al
Green, Gene
Grijalva
Gutierrez
Hall (NY)
Hare
Harman
Hastings (FL)
Herseth
Hill
Hinchey
Hinojosa
Hirono
Hodes
Holden
Holt
Honda
Hooley
Hoyer
Inslee
Israel
Jackson (IL)
Jackson-Lee (TX)
Jefferson
Johnson (GA)
Johnson, E. B.
Kagen
Kanjorski
Kaptur
Kennedy
Kildee
Kilpatrick
Kind
Klein (FL)
Kucinich
Lampson
Langevin
Lantos
Larsen (WA)
Larson (CT)
Lee
Levin
Lewis (GA)
Lipinski
Loebsack
Lofgren, Zoe
Lowey
Lynch
Mahoney (FL)
Markey
Marshall
Matheson
Matsui
McCarthy (NY)
McCollum (MN)
McGovern
McIntyre
McNerney
McNulty
Meehan
Meek (FL)
Meeks (NY)
Melancon
Michaud
Millender-McDonald
Miller (NC)
Miller, George
Mitchell
Mollohan
Moore (KS)
Moore (WI)
Moran (VA)
Murphy (CT)
Murphy, Patrick
Murtha
Nadler
Napolitano
Neal (MA)
Oberstar
Obey
Olver
Ortiz
Pallone
Pascrell
Pastor
Payne
Pelosi
Perlmutter
Peterson (MN)
Pomeroy
Price (NC)
Rahall
Rangel
Reyes
Rodriguez
Ross
Rothman
Roybal-Allard
Rush
Ryan (OH)
Salazar
Sanchez, Linda T.
Sanchez, Loretta
Sarbanes
Schakowsky
Schiff
Schwartz
Scott (GA)
Scott (VA)
Serrano
Sestak
Shea-Porter
Sherman
Shuler
Simpson
Sires
Skelton
Slaughter
Smith (WA)
Snyder
Solis
Space
Spratt
Stupak
Sutton
Tanner
Tauscher
Thompson (CA)
Thompson (MS)
Tierney
Towns
Udall (CO)
Udall (NM)
Van Hollen
Velazquez
Visclosky
Walz (MN)
Wasserman Schultz
Waters
Watson
Watt
Waxman
Weiner
Welch (VT)
Weller
Wexler
Wilson (OH)
Woolsey
Wu
Wynn
Yarmuth
NOES--180
Aderholt
Akin
Bachmann
Baker
Barrett (SC)
Bartlett (MD)
Barton (TX)
Biggert
Bilbray
Bilirakis
Bishop (UT)
Blackburn
Blunt
Boehner
Bonner
Bono
Boozman
Boustany
Brady (TX)
Brown (SC)
Brown-Waite, Ginny
Buchanan
Burgess
Calvert
Camp (MI)
Campbell (CA)
Cannon
Cantor
Capito
Carter
Castle
Chabot
Coble
Cole (OK)
Conaway
Crenshaw
Cubin
Davis (KY)
Davis, David
Deal (GA)
Dent
Diaz-Balart, L.
Diaz-Balart, M.
Doolittle
Drake
Dreier
Duncan
Ehlers
Emerson
Everett
Fallin
Feeney
Ferguson
Flake
Forbes
Fortenberry
Foxx
Franks (AZ)
Frelinghuysen
Gallegly
Garrett (NJ)
Gerlach
Gillmor
Gingrey
Gohmert
Goode
Goodlatte
Granger
Graves
Hall (TX)
Hayes
Heller
Hensarling
Herger
Hobson
Hoekstra
Hulshof
Hunter
Inglis (SC)
Issa
Jindal
Johnson (IL)
Jones (NC)
Jordan
Keller
King (IA)
Kingston
Kirk
Kline (MN)
Knollenberg
Kuhl (NY)
LaHood
Latham
LaTourette
Lewis (CA)
Lewis (KY)
Linder
LoBiondo
Lucas
Lungren, Daniel E.
Mack
Manzullo
Marchant
McCarthy (CA)
McCaul (TX)
McCotter
McCrery
McHenry
McHugh
McKeon
McMorris Rodgers
Mica
Miller (FL)
Miller (MI)
Miller, Gary
Moran (KS)
Murphy, Tim
Musgrave
Neugebauer
Nunes
Pearce
Pence
Petri
Pickering
Pitts
Platts
Porter
Price (GA)
Pryce (OH)
Putnam
Radanovich
Ramstad
Regula
Rehberg
Reichert
Renzi
Rogers (AL)
Rogers (KY)
Rogers (MI)
Rohrabacher
Ros-Lehtinen
Roskam
Royce
Ryan (WI)
Sali
Saxton
Schmidt
Sensenbrenner
Sessions
Shadegg
Shays
Shimkus
Shuster
Smith (NE)
Smith (NJ)
Smith (TX)
Souder
Stearns
Sullivan
Tancredo
Taylor
Terry
Thornberry
Tiahrt
Tiberi
Turner
Upton
Walberg
Walden (OR)
Walsh (NY)
Wamp
Weldon (FL)
Westmoreland
Whitfield
Wicker
Wilson (NM)
Wilson (SC)
Wolf
Young (AK)
Young (FL)
NOT VOTING--29
Alexander
Bachus
Burton (IN)
Buyer
Culberson
Davis, Jo Ann
Davis, Tom
English (PA)
Farr
Fossella
Giffords
Gilchrest
Hastert
Hastings (WA)
Higgins
Johnson, Sam
Jones (OH)
King (NY)
Lamborn
Maloney (NY)
McDermott
Myrick
Norwood
Paul
Peterson (PA)
Poe
Reynolds
Ruppersberger
Stark
{time} 1323
Ms. SLAUGHTER and Mr. HINOJOSA changed their vote from ``no'' to
``aye.''
So the motion to table was agreed to.
The result of the vote was announced as above recorded.
Point of Order
Mr. McHENRY. Mr. Speaker, I rise to make a point of order.
The SPEAKER pro tempore (Mr. DeFazio). The gentleman will state his
point of order.
Mr. McHENRY. Under the new House rules, there is an anti-earmark rule
that governs the House, which the rule governing this bill does not
waive that rule of the House; and sections of this legislation actually
go forward and violate that anti-earmark legislation. Therefore, I rise
to make a point of order against H.J. Res. 20, as title I, section
101(a)(2), violates rule XXI, clause 9, of the House rules, stating,
``There shall be no Member-directed earmarks,'' which this legislation
does possess.
The SPEAKER pro tempore. Does any Member wish to be heard?
The Chair recognizes the gentleman from Wisconsin.
Mr. OBEY. Mr. Speaker, I would simply note that on page H988 of the
Congressional Record there is listed the following statement:
Under clause 9(a) of rule XXI, lists or statements on congressional
earmarks, limited tax benefits or limited tariff benefits are submitted
as follows offered by myself: H.J. Res. 20 making further continuing
appropriations for fiscal year 2007, and for other purposes, does not
contain any congressional earmarks, limited tax benefits, or limited
tariff benefits as defined in clause 9(d), 9(e), or 9(f) of rule XXI.
Mr. McHENRY. Will the gentleman yield?
Mr. OBEY. No.
Mr. McHENRY. The gentleman will not yield for the question.
The SPEAKER pro tempore. On a point of order there is no yielding.
The chair will hear each Member in turn. Does the gentleman from North
Carolina wish to be heard on his point of order?
Mr. McHENRY. Yes. I wish to speak further.
The SPEAKER pro tempore. The gentleman is recognized.
Mr. McHENRY. Mr. Speaker, the gentleman is stating, simply because
legislation states that there are no earmarks, that you can contain
thousands of earmarks after that statement. It defies logic and defies
reason.
And, furthermore, your section explaining that there shall be no
congressional earmarks is further on in the legislation. Therefore, it
is not operational over the violation that I am stating in section 101.
Therefore, under the legislation here, it is not operational.
Therefore, it is a very crafty way, and I have got to compliment the
gentleman for putting together a very crafty piece of legislation to
try to slip this by. But under these House rules, this is a clear
violation of the anti-earmarking provision that is very important to
the rules of debate, even when the minority is not able to offer any
amendments, even when the minority has no other means of removing
congressional earmarks.
The SPEAKER pro tempore. The gentleman will restrict himself to the
point of order.
Mr. OBEY. Mr. Speaker, I ask for a ruling from the Chair.
The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under clause 9(a) of rule XXI, it is not in
order to consider an unreported bill or joint resolution unless the
chairman of each committee of initial referral has caused to be printed
in the Congressional Record a list of congressional
[[Page H1089]]
earmarks, limited tax benefits, or limited tariff benefits contained in
the measure, or a statement that the measure contains no such earmarks
or benefits.
Under clause 9(c) of rule XXI, a point of order under clause 9(a) of
rule XXI may be based only on the failure of the submission to the
Congressional Record to include such a list or statement.
The Chair has examined the Congressional Record and finds that it
contains the statement contemplated by clause 9(a) of rule XXI.
Accordingly, the point of order is overruled.
Mr. McHENRY. Mr. Speaker, I appeal the ruling of the Chair.
Motion to Table Offered by Mr. Obey
Mr. OBEY. Mr. Speaker, I move to table the appeal.
The SPEAKER pro tempore. The question is on the motion to table.
The question was taken; and the Speaker pro tempore announced that
the ayes appeared to have it.
Mr. McHENRY. Division. I ask for a division vote, Mr. Speaker.
Mr. OBEY. Mr. Speaker, I ask for the yeas and nays.
Mr. McHENRY. Wait a second, Mr. Speaker. I asked for a division vote.
The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under the Constitution, the yeas and nays
have precedence over a request for a division.
The yeas and nays are requested. Those favoring a vote by the yeas
and nays will rise. A sufficient number having risen, the yeas and nays
are ordered.
The vote was taken by electronic device, and there were--yeas 226,
nays 184, not voting 25, as follows:
[Roll No. 70]
YEAS--226
Abercrombie
Ackerman
Allen
Altmire
Andrews
Arcuri
Baca
Baird
Baldwin
Barrow
Bean
Becerra
Berkley
Berman
Berry
Bishop (GA)
Bishop (NY)
Blumenauer
Boren
Boswell
Boyd (FL)
Boyda (KS)
Brady (PA)
Braley (IA)
Brown, Corrine
Butterfield
Capps
Capuano
Cardoza
Carnahan
Carney
Carson
Castor
Chandler
Clarke
Clay
Cleaver
Clyburn
Cohen
Conyers
Cooper
Costa
Costello
Courtney
Cramer
Crowley
Cuellar
Davis (AL)
Davis (CA)
Davis (IL)
Davis, Lincoln
DeFazio
DeGette
Delahunt
DeLauro
Dicks
Dingell
Doggett
Donnelly
Doyle
Edwards
Ellison
Ellsworth
Emanuel
Engel
Eshoo
Etheridge
Fattah
Filner
Frank (MA)
Giffords
Gillibrand
Gonzalez
Gordon
Green, Al
Green, Gene
Grijalva
Gutierrez
Hall (NY)
Hare
Harman
Hastings (FL)
Herseth
Hill
Hinchey
Hinojosa
Hirono
Hodes
Holden
Holt
Honda
Hooley
Hoyer
Inslee
Israel
Jackson (IL)
Jackson-Lee (TX)
Jefferson
Johnson (GA)
Johnson, E. B.
Jones (OH)
Kagen
Kanjorski
Kaptur
Kennedy
Kildee
Kilpatrick
Kind
Klein (FL)
Kucinich
Lampson
Langevin
Lantos
Larsen (WA)
Larson (CT)
Lee
Levin
Lewis (GA)
Lipinski
Loebsack
Lofgren, Zoe
Lowey
Lynch
Mahoney (FL)
Markey
Marshall
Matheson
Matsui
McCarthy (NY)
McCollum (MN)
McGovern
McIntyre
McNerney
McNulty
Meehan
Meek (FL)
Meeks (NY)
Melancon
Michaud
Millender-McDonald
Miller (NC)
Miller, George
Mitchell
Mollohan
Moore (KS)
Moore (WI)
Moran (VA)
Murphy (CT)
Murphy, Patrick
Murtha
Nadler
Napolitano
Neal (MA)
Oberstar
Obey
Olver
Ortiz
Pallone
Pascrell
Pastor
Payne
Pelosi
Perlmutter
Peterson (MN)
Pomeroy
Price (NC)
Rahall
Ramstad
Rangel
Reyes
Rodriguez
Ross
Rothman
Roybal-Allard
Ruppersberger
Rush
Ryan (OH)
Salazar
Sanchez, Linda T.
Sanchez, Loretta
Sarbanes
Schakowsky
Schiff
Schwartz
Scott (GA)
Scott (VA)
Serrano
Sestak
Shea-Porter
Sherman
Shuler
Simpson
Sires
Slaughter
Smith (WA)
Snyder
Solis
Space
Spratt
Stupak
Sutton
Tanner
Tauscher
Taylor
Thompson (CA)
Thompson (MS)
Tierney
Towns
Udall (CO)
Udall (NM)
Van Hollen
Velazquez
Visclosky
Walz (MN)
Wasserman Schultz
Waters
Watt
Waxman
Weiner
Welch (VT)
Wexler
Wilson (OH)
Woolsey
Wu
Wynn
Yarmuth
NAYS--184
Aderholt
Akin
Bachus
Baker
Barrett (SC)
Bartlett (MD)
Barton (TX)
Biggert
Bilbray
Bilirakis
Bishop (UT)
Blackburn
Blunt
Boehner
Bonner
Bono
Boozman
Boustany
Brady (TX)
Brown (SC)
Brown-Waite, Ginny
Buchanan
Burgess
Burton (IN)
Calvert
Camp (MI)
Campbell (CA)
Cannon
Cantor
Capito
Carter
Castle
Chabot
Coble
Cole (OK)
Conaway
Crenshaw
Culberson
Davis (KY)
Davis, David
Davis, Tom
Deal (GA)
Dent
Diaz-Balart, L.
Diaz-Balart, M.
Doolittle
Drake
Dreier
Duncan
Ehlers
Emerson
Everett
Fallin
Feeney
Ferguson
Flake
Forbes
Fortenberry
Foxx
Franks (AZ)
Frelinghuysen
Gallegly
Garrett (NJ)
Gerlach
Gillmor
Gingrey
Gohmert
Goode
Goodlatte
Granger
Graves
Hall (TX)
Hastings (WA)
Hayes
Heller
Hensarling
Herger
Hobson
Hoekstra
Hulshof
Hunter
Inglis (SC)
Issa
Jindal
Johnson (IL)
Jones (NC)
Jordan
Keller
King (IA)
Kingston
Kirk
Kline (MN)
Knollenberg
Kuhl (NY)
LaHood
Lamborn
Latham
LaTourette
Lewis (CA)
Lewis (KY)
Linder
LoBiondo
Lucas
Lungren, Daniel E.
Mack
Manzullo
Marchant
McCarthy (CA)
McCotter
McCrery
McHenry
McHugh
McKeon
McMorris Rodgers
Mica
Miller (FL)
Miller (MI)
Miller, Gary
Moran (KS)
Murphy, Tim
Musgrave
Neugebauer
Nunes
Pearce
Pence
Peterson (PA)
Petri
Pickering
Pitts
Platts
Poe
Porter
Price (GA)
Pryce (OH)
Putnam
Radanovich
Regula
Rehberg
Reichert
Renzi
Rogers (AL)
Rogers (KY)
Rogers (MI)
Rohrabacher
Ros-Lehtinen
Roskam
Royce
Ryan (WI)
Sali
Saxton
Schmidt
Sensenbrenner
Sessions
Shadegg
Shays
Shimkus
Shuster
Smith (NE)
Smith (NJ)
Smith (TX)
Souder
Stearns
Sullivan
Tancredo
Terry
Thornberry
Tiahrt
Tiberi
Turner
Upton
Walberg
Walden (OR)
Walsh (NY)
Wamp
Weldon (FL)
Weller
Westmoreland
Whitfield
Wicker
Wilson (NM)
Wilson (SC)
Wolf
Young (AK)
Young (FL)
NOT VOTING--25
Alexander
Bachmann
Boucher
Buyer
Cubin
Cummings
Davis, Jo Ann
English (PA)
Farr
Fossella
Gilchrest
Hastert
Higgins
Johnson, Sam
King (NY)
Maloney (NY)
McCaul (TX)
McDermott
Myrick
Norwood
Paul
Reynolds
Skelton
Stark
Watson
{time} 1350
So the motion to table was agreed to.
The result of the vote was announced as above recorded.
A motion to reconsider was laid on the table.
Parliamentary Inquiries
Mr. McHENRY. Mr. Speaker, parliamentary inquiry.
The SPEAKER pro tempore (Mr. DeFazio). The gentleman will state his
parliamentary inquiry.
Mr. McHENRY. We just had a vote on this floor about rule XXI, section
9. Just for clarification, for the body's purposes going forward with
this new rule, in essence, this is the parliamentary inquiry, if I may
state it. The summary of rule XXI, section 9 is that as long as the
legislation states that there are no earmarks, there may be thousands
of earmarks within that legislation, but only operationally must the
legislation include text that states that there are no earmarks. Is
that the ruling of the Chair? I would be happy to give the Speaker
numerous examples of earmarks in this.
The SPEAKER pro tempore. The Chair does not respond to hypothetical
questions raised under the guise of a parliamentary inquiry.
Mr. McHENRY. Further parliamentary inquiry then.
The SPEAKER pro tempore. The gentleman will state his parliamentary
inquiry.
Mr. McHENRY. Rule XXI, section 9, states that a bill or joint
resolution reported by a committee, unless the report includes a list
of congressional earmarks, limited tax benefits, limited tariff
benefits in the bill or in the report and the name of any Member,
Delegate or Resident Commissioner who submits a request to the
committee for each respective item included in such list or a statement
that the proposition contains no congressional earmarks, limited tax
benefits or limited tariff benefits. Does this legislation state that
and conform to rule XXI, section 9?
The SPEAKER pro tempore. The Chair previously ruled on that question,
and the House sustained the Chair by tabling an appeal.
Mr. McHENRY. Further parliamentary inquiry. Operationally, may a
committee Chair simply sign and attest to the Parliamentarian that
there are no earmarks within said legislation?
[[Page H1090]]
The SPEAKER pro tempore. The Chair will not render advisory opinions.
That is not a proper parliamentary inquiry.
Mr. McHENRY. Further parliamentary inquiry.
The SPEAKER pro tempore. Does the gentleman have a proper
parliamentary inquiry?
Mr. McHENRY. I appreciate the Speaker operating in such an unbiased
way. It is very kind of you.
The SPEAKER pro tempore. If the gentleman will refrain for a moment,
the Chair is operating under the precedents and rules of the House of
Representatives and properly respecting those rules. So, if the
gentleman has a proper parliamentary inquiry, he would please state it.
Mr. McHENRY. Parliamentary inquiry, Mr. Speaker. What is an earmark?
Under House rules, what is an earmark?
The SPEAKER pro tempore. The gentleman has again not stated a proper
parliamentary inquiry.
Pursuant to House Resolution 116, the gentleman from Wisconsin (Mr.
Obey) and the gentleman from California (Mr. Lewis) each will control
30 minutes.
The Chair recognizes the gentleman from Wisconsin.
Mr. OBEY. I thank the Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I yield myself 2 minutes.
Mr. Speaker, I simply want to thank Janet Airis and her staff at the
CBO scoring unit; Ira Forstater and Nadia Soree and the entire staff at
the Legislative Council; and certainly, most of all, the staff of the
Appropriations Committee, both majority and minority, both Senate and
House, especially Rob Nabors and David Reich.
This is a bill that needs to pass so that everyone who is reliant
upon programs contained therein understands what the rules of the game
will be for the remainder of the fiscal year. I urge passage.
Mr. Speaker, I reserve the balance of my time.
Mr. LEWIS of California. Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I
may consume.
Mr. Speaker, I rise today to do something that I have never done
before, and that is to oppose House passage of an appropriations bill.
My friends on the other side of the aisle, and I use the term
``friends'' sincerely, have produced an 8-month omnibus spending bill
that appropriates $463.5 billion. It is legislation that few have seen,
which cannot be amended in any way, and that will pass this House after
only 1 hour of debate. It is the first omnibus spending bill that I
have seen during my time in Congress written and considered without the
input of the chairman or ranking members of any appropriations
subcommittee, without the input of any Republican or Democratic
subcommittee members, without the benefit of a full Appropriations
Committee markup, without the standard three days for circulating the
bill to committee members before markup, without the standard 3 days
for circulating the bill to all House Members after full committee
consideration, without any prior debate whatsoever, and without the
opportunity to offer even one amendment on the House floor.
I do not fault my friend, Mr. Obey, the chairman of the
Appropriations Committee, for he is doing what he is asked to be done
by his leadership. He is in the position today because of the former
Senate majority leader's complete failure to schedule and pass the
fiscal year 2007 appropriations bills. The House and the Senate
Appropriations Committee did their work last year, and Mr. Obey and I
worked very closely in attempting to see it was fully completed. The
Senate leadership did not.
As the former chairman of the committee, I know that Mr. Obey feels
strongly about maintaining regular order and passing other
appropriations bills. I can vividly recall a conversation Mr. Obey had
with me shortly after I became chairman when he suggested that perhaps
I would be the last chairman of the Appropriations Committee because of
the breakdown of regular order.
I looked to his comments and have taken them to heart because I
committed to him and to our Members that we would pass our spending
bills in regular order, and the 2 years I served as chairman we did.
Today, my fear is that Mr. Obey may be the last chairman of the
Appropriations Committee because of the very concern he expressed to
me, the breakdown of that regular order. Shutting both Republicans and
Democrats out of the legislative process is a highly, highly unusual
circumstance, but that is exactly what has occurred.
Both Republicans and Democrats are being denied a full and open
debate on this legislation that will spend, as I suggested earlier,
$463.5 billion, roughly one-half of the annual Federal budget.
Speaker Pelosi and Leader Hoyer, both former members of the
Appropriations Committee, know that our process is very open and a
collaborative one. Historically, appropriations bills are brought to
the floor under an open rule to encourage debate and create better
legislation. Our spending bills reflect not just the will of the
Appropriations Committee but, indeed, the will of the entire bipartisan
House. It is not uncommon to have hours and hours of debate and more
than 100 Democrat or Republican amendments offered on a single spending
bill. That is, until today.
The House will debate this legislation today for 1 hour. Not one
amendment has been made in order. The Senate, that is, the other body,
on the other hand, will have the opportunity to debate the legislation
for up to 15 days and with the potential for an unlimited number of
amendments.
{time} 1400
Let me repeat, it is important that the Members hear that. One hour
of debate in the House with no amendments, 15 days of debate in the
Senate with potentially unlimited amendments.
Speaker Pelosi has vowed to run the House in a more open, democratic
and inclusive way. A spirit of bipartisanship, she said, would prevail
in the people's House. That pledge was put on the shelf so the new
majority could complete their first 100 hours agenda.
The new majority then promised that business would soon return to
regular order with plenty of opportunity for Democrats and Republicans
to participate in the democratic process. Members of the House,
Democrats and Republicans, are still waiting for the Speaker to keep
her word.
In closing, I would suggest that our country would be better served
by extending for a full year the clean continuing resolution the House
and Senate passed in December. That legislation, a mere 19 pages long,
contained no gimmicks, no policy changes, and did not reward or punish
agencies indiscriminately, as is done in this 137-page package.
This omnibus spending bill before us today totally disregards the
once proud tradition of regular order within the House Appropriations
Committee and violates the longstanding bipartisan customs of the
people's House. I urge that my colleagues join me in a ``no'' vote.
Mr. Speaker, I reserve the balance of my time.
Mr. OBEY. Mr. Speaker, I yield to the gentleman from Texas (Mr.
Lampson) for a unanimous consent request.
(Mr. LAMPSON asked and was given permission to revise and extend his
remarks.)
Mr. LAMPSON. Mr. Speaker, the Energy Policy Act of 2005 which was
signed by the President in August of 2005, included four directed
spending programs that will each make a significant positive
contribution to the security and reliability of the energy supply and
infrastructure of this Nation. The Energy Policy Act authorized these
programs with full funding so that they could be implemented as soon as
possible. It should be made clear that it is the intent of the
Continuing Resolution to remove any impediments that may have arisen to
the timely implementation of the four Energy Policy Act provisions--
Section 105, the Energy Saving Performance Contracts; Section 384,
Coastal Impact Assistance; Section 999, Ultra-deepwater and
Unconventional Onshore Natural Gas and Other Petroleum Research and
Development; and Section 1211, Electric Reliability Organization. These
programs were clearly authorized and directly funded by the Energy
Policy Act of 2005 and should be fully funded and implemented
immediately.
Mr. OBEY. Mr. Speaker, I yield myself 12 minutes.
Mr. Speaker, on Monday, the President will submit to the Congress his
new budget. It would be kind of nice if we had disposed of his last
year's budget request before the President brings
[[Page H1091]]
his new budget forward, because I believe that he is entitled to start
the year with a clean slate, and I think we are entitled to start the
year with a clean slate as well.
Unfortunately, we cannot do that because of the failures of the last
Congress. This resolution represents the last remaining legislation
that must be passed in order to clean up the mess left to us by the
last Congress.
Now, we all know the story. Last year, the House debated and passed
every single appropriation bill except the Labor, Health, Education
bill. That was held up because of the now-well-known division between
the two parties on the minimum wage and also because moderate
Republicans in this House, led by people like Mr. Castle and others,
were demanding that the Republican leadership add at least $3 billion
to the Labor, Health, Education appropriation bill in order to get
their votes on the Republican budget resolution.
The then chairman, Mr. Lewis from California, my good friend,
specifically said on the House floor that the reason the Congress was
not allowed to finish its work is because the Senate majority leader,
Senator Frist, shielded the Senate from any painful votes on
appropriations before the election. Then, after the election, the
majority party walked away from their responsibility to finish the
budget, and they left us to clean up the mess as they walked out the
door.
When we considered the CR under which we are now operating, I
specifically said from this place on the House floor that I would make
any substantive compromise that was necessary and I would make any
procedural compromise that was necessary in order to enable the then
majority Republicans to finish the bills on their watch, on their
terms. I said I was willing to recognize that they still controlled the
Congress and so they had a right to have Republican priorities
reflected in those bills, even if I disagreed with those priorities.
But I also warned that if they did not live up to their
responsibilities to pass the budget, then they would forfeit their
right to complain and whine about how we went about cleaning up their
leftover jobs.
So when it became apparent that they would not meet their
responsibilities, Senator Byrd and I announced that we would proceed by
doing two things. We announced, first of all, that we would provide no
congressional earmarks. We told anybody who had an earmark in a 2007
bill that if they wanted it considered in the following fiscal year
they would need to present it under the reform process, which we were
in the process of putting together; and we announced at that time that
we intended to cut earmarks by 50 percent in comparison to the 2007
bill.
The second thing that we announced is that we would take the 2006
continuing resolution and make whatever adjustments were necessary in
order to avoid shutdowns of agencies or layoffs or furloughs and in
order to recognize priorities that we thought people had on both sides
of the aisle. That is what we did.
In this bill, we started with the fiscal 2006 base. We then cut or
rescinded $9- to $10 billion, almost $10 billion, in items that we
thought could be cut or rescinded. We cut over 60 programs. We
generated $10 billion or so in savings, and we added that to the $7
billion that still remained within the Republican budget resolution
cap, and then we allocated that money on the basis of what we thought
were better priorities.
Now, the gentleman from California says we should have just stuck
with the existing 2006 continuing resolution. We could have done that.
If we had, we would not have been able to add $3.6 billion in veterans'
health care, which we have done in this bill, which is our number one
priority. We would not have been able to add $1.2 billion in defense
health, which we add in this bill. We would not have been able to add
$500 million for basic housing allowances for our military, and we
would not have been able to add the $1 billion that we added for BRAC,
the base closing operations. We would also not have been able to add
the $216 million that we added to the FBI budget at the request of the
administration.
In education, two weeks ago, when the Democratic Party brought to
this House floor a proposition to lower interest rates on student
loans, we were told, ``oh, that is just tokenism. What you ought to do
is add to the Pell Grants.''
That is what we have done. We added enough to the Pell Grant program
to allow an increase in the maximum grant of $260. We wouldn't have
been able to do that either if we had followed Mr. Lewis' suggestion
and simply stuck to the CR under which we are now operating.
In addition to that, we added $250 million to Title I and $100
million to Head Start so we could end the decline in enrollment in that
program.
In the area of science, we were asked by a number of Members on the
Republican side of the aisle in this House, and on our side, plus the
Senate on both sides, to add money for NIH. Members did not like the
fact that, under the alternative, we were going to lose at least 500
medical grants in cancer research, heart disease, Alzheimer's and the
rest.
I have not met a single constituent who said, ``Hey, Obey, I think
you ought to save money by cutting cancer research grants.'' We added
$620 million to reverse the decline in the number of research grants at
NIH, and we added some additional funds to the National Science
Foundation.
We added some additional money to energy conservation and energy
research programs, in addition to which we provided a $200 million add-
on for the Clean Water Revolving Fund. There isn't a small community in
this country that doesn't need some help with clean water.
We added $100 million for park maintenance, and we added $90 million
for firefighting.
We also were requested by the administration to provide at least the
amount that they asked for the global AIDS program and to combat
malaria and TB. So we added $1.4 billion to do that, and we added $146
million to prevent the Social Security Administration from having a 10-
day furlough for their employees. That is what we did.
We also provided a suspension of all earmarks.
Now, I want to make clear a lot of the earmarks that we suspended are
perfectly defensible. They accomplish laudatory public purposes. I
think it is sad that we haven't been able to fund them. But the fact is
that it became apparent to me that the earmarking process had been so
discredited by the Cunningham case and by other cases that we have no
choice but to start over. So we wanted to clear the decks, clean up the
process, and start over.
Ninety-nine percent of the Members of this House on both sides of the
aisle have immense integrity. They don't ask the Congress for things
that are illegitimate, but it is that 1 percent that has fouled the
nest for everybody else. So we are trying to clean up the nest so that
we can approach next year with a clean start and so that we will have a
process so that both parties will know what earmarks the other party is
putting into the bills.
I want the minority to be fully cognizant of whatever earmarks the
majority puts in the bills, and I want us to be fully cognizant of the
other earmarks you put in the bills. That is the only way we can
protect the integrity of this institution.
So we are being criticized in some quarters because we are being
told, ``Well, when you eliminated the earmarks, you should also have
eliminated the money in those programs.'' We didn't do that for one
very simple reason. We didn't want to reduce the amount of money in the
COPS program, for instance.
What we are doing, by eliminating earmarks, and let's be clear about
it, we are not saving a dime by eliminating earmarks. But what we are
doing is transferring the power to decide where that money goes from
the congressional branch to the executive branch. I don't like that,
but it is a price I am willing to pay to clean up the system. What that
means is that the administration will have much more authority than
normal to decide where money goes, whether it is in the Army Corps of
Engineers program or COPS or you name it.
I would simply say, we may have made some wrong choices. Undoubtedly,
we did. But the process was this.
For 3\1/2\ weeks our staffs worked 7 days a week round the clock, and
they negotiated with the Senate, Republican
[[Page H1092]]
and Democratic staff alike. The Republican staff was invited to every
meeting that took place. If they attended or didn't, that was up to
them.
Whenever the staff could not reach agreement, the Members were
brought in order to argue it up. If you don't think that occurred, talk
to Mr. Visclosky, talk to Senator Domenici, talk about the arguments
they had on the Energy and Water bill, and there are countless other
examples.
We are now in a situation in which we have to move on. We may have
made some wrong choices, but at least, in contrast to last year, we
made those choices, we made them. They may not be popular, but they
were necessary so that we can turn the page, get on the next year.
This bill is the functional equivalent of a conference report. All of
the appropriation bills that were not completed action on last year,
this is what they look like. This is what they look like. This is a
continuing resolution that we are producing today in order to direct
where the spending in these bills ought to go.
Now, you may say you don't think it fits the traditional definition
of a continuing resolution. Either you can have an automatic continuing
resolution, or you can have a thinking man's continuing resolution. I
don't think that we were obligated to lock ourselves into the 2006
numbers, because that would have prevented us from providing the
initiatives that I talked about for veterans, for education and the
like.
This is a responsible document. Nothing was sneaked in. Everybody
knows what is in this package. All the staff knows.
I would urge an ``aye'' vote for the bill so that, come Monday, we
can deal with the President's new budget, rather than continuing to
deal with the spilt milk of yesterday's majority.
{time} 1415
Mr. LEWIS of California. Mr. Speaker, I yield 3 minutes to my
colleague, the ranking member of the Homeland Security Subcommittee of
Appropriations (Mr. Rogers of Kentucky).
Mr. ROGERS of Kentucky. Mr. Speaker, I am sad to say that this is a
sad day for the U.S. House.
Why do I say that? Well, Mr. Speaker, the power of the purse is the
most important power of the Congress. James Madison called the power of
the purse ``the most complete and effectual weapon with which any
constitution can arm the immediate representatives of the people.''
The power of the purse of the Congress is exercised through its
Appropriations Committee and the appropriations process that is
longstanding in this body.
Today, we are throwing out that procedure. We are saying in this bill
that all of the work that has gone on in the hearings, hundreds of
hearings, hours and hundreds of hours of testimony that we have taken
in the various subcommittee hearings from the administration, from
outside witnesses, from Members of Congress, the Senate and so on, all
of those hearings are being disregarded and thrown out. The testimony
from the agency and the department heads and the Inspectors General and
all of the people that are in the executive branch that are in charge
of keeping track of the money, the GAO reports, budget reports, policy
expert reports, all of those are being tossed out in favor of the
judgment of two Members of the Congress, one from the House, one from
the Senate. The bill before us is the product of two people, one from
the House, one from the Senate.
All of the debate that took place on the House floor on these
individual bills as they came before this body, and Members expressed
their views, offered amendments, had some won, some lost, but
nevertheless, the process worked. That is being thrown out.
These bills were chock full of reporting requirements of oversight
provisions, congressional controls, money closely tied to results from
the administration. The bills were carefully crafted in an open
process, input from every Member, and all 10 of the 11 bills passed
through the House gained widespread bipartisan support. Legislation we
can be proud of. And yet we are throwing that out.
The bipartisan work, we are throwing it away. This annual process we
call the appropriations process is being discarded. We are cutting the
purse strings, blindly handing over the money to the executive branch
with no leverage, no new oversight of nearly half of the Federal
discretionary budget.
The new majority, Mr. Speaker, has been very righteous in saying it
will conduct much more oversight than the previous Congress. And yet
this so-called CR completely abdicates the majority's responsibilities
as conducting any oversight. Just give the money to the executive
branch. Spend it as you please. We don't care. That is what we are
saying.
And, Mr. Speaker, I don't like it.
Mr. OBEY. Mr. Speaker, I yield myself 1 minute.
Mr. Speaker, the gentleman talks about how we should have stuck with
the bills that they produced last year. There is only one problem. They
couldn't convince their Republican brethren in the Senate to buy them.
And so we had to try something else.
I can't help it that the majority party did not meet its
responsibilities to pass these appropriations because you had an
internal fight within the Republican Party. But now the responsibility
is passed to us, and at least we are producing a proposal which can
pass both Houses. That is more than can be said for the work product of
the last Congress.
Mr. Speaker, I now yield 2 minutes to the gentleman from Texas (Mr.
Edwards).
Mr. EDWARDS. Mr. Speaker, I heard the term ``abdication of
responsibility'' used. I consider abdication of responsibility only
passing two out of 13 appropriation bills last year.
Today is a good day for America's veterans. As someone who has fought
hard for veterans over the years, I want to applaud Chairman Obey and
Democratic leaders for placing such a high priority on veterans in this
resolution. It is the right thing to do. Our veterans fought for our
country, and now it is time for us to stand up for them.
Unfortunately, though, since October 1 of last year, for the last 4
months, VA health care has been woefully underfunded. Why? Because
those who are arguing against this resolution today failed to pass for
the entire year the 2007 VA appropriations bill when they were in
charge of this House and the other body, continued underfunding that
put veterans health care seriously at risk.
VA medical care in this resolution has increased by $3.6 billion.
That means $300 million each month once this resolution becomes law,
helping to provide better health care for our men and women who have
served our country.
Let me personalize what those numbers mean to our veterans. Without
the vital funding increase in this resolution, millions of veterans
could see their health care services reduced. Hundreds of thousands of
veterans could have to wait in line longer, perhaps months longer, to
get the medical services they need and they deserve. Tens of thousands
of veterans might not even receive any medical care at all from the VA
without this resolution.
A vote for this resolution is a vote to respect our veterans. It says
we will not only respect our veterans with our words. We will respect
them with our deeds. Our veterans deserve no less. Vote ``yes'' for our
veterans by voting ``yes'' for this resolution.
Mr. LEWIS of California. Mr. Speaker, I yield 2 minutes to the
gentleman from Virginia (Mr. Wolf).
Mr. WOLF. Mr. Speaker, I thank Mr. Lewis for yielding.
I rise in opposition to the resolution. And let me just stipulate it
probably has a lot of very good things in it. But when I was chairman
of two different subcommittees, we always had complete consultation,
and if what I am saying is not accurate, those Members should come down
here and attack me for it, complete consultation before we sent the
bills out. And what I am concerned about is the precedent that we are
establishing.
I have a resolution to put the Congress on record in support of the
Iraq Study Group. Now, am I going to be foreclosed from offering that
resolution? Here is a group of men and women, Baker and Hamilton, who
spent 8 months. It was one of these evil earmarks that you hear all
about it. Am I going to be foreclosed from offering the Baker-Hamilton
solution to the
[[Page H1093]]
problem? The administration doesn't like it. Probably Members on both
sides of the aisle don't like it. But am I going to be foreclosed? Here
is a group that spent 8 months looking at this. And Jim Baker is a good
man and Lee Hamilton is a good man. They were bipartisan. Chuck Robb;
Bill Perry; Leon Panetta, who served over here; and Ed Meese. Based on
what we are seeing here now, I will be foreclosed. Any resolution that
comes from this side of the aisle is automatically foreclosed. We have
watched it for the whole month of January.
So let me just say I am sure, Mr. Obey, this is probably a lot of
good stuff. But we on the minority side have to be treated the way we
should be. Do unto others as you would have them do unto you.
Now, the test will be with my resolution, and there are only two of
us on it, Gilchrest and myself. Will I be foreclosed by the Rules
Committee in 2 weeks from my resolution that puts the Congress on
record in support of the Baker-Hamilton Commission? Ten people, five
Republicans, five Democrats, spent more time looking at this issue of
Iraq than this Congress has, than the Republican Party has and the
Democratic Party has. And based on what is taking place so far today, I
will be foreclosed.
And I hope I am not foreclosed because when you are in the minority
and you don't have that opportunity to offer amendments, then, frankly,
you are being cut out of the process.
Mr. Speaker, I rise in opposition to this resolution.
This is a continuing resolution like no other that I have seen
before. It is an omnibus appropriations bill that will fund nearly one-
half of the federal government for fiscal year 2007.
When I was Chairman of the Science, State, Justice Subcommittee, we
had in-depth discussions and consultations with our Ranking and
minority members. On our committee we worked in a bi-partisan manner.
The precedent that this CR is setting troubles me.
I have a resolution supporting the recommendations of the recently
released Iraq Study Group, also known as the Baker-Hamilton report.
Based on this CR process with its closed rule and no committee
debate, does this mean that I am going to be foreclosed from offering
the resolution?
The chairman of the Appropriations Committee has been quoted saying
that most of the negotiations on the CR were conducted by staff. While
we have terrific staff on both sides of the aisle, this is not the way
this institution is supposed to operate.
The resolution before the House includes $31.2 billion for the State,
Foreign Operations accounts.
This is an increase of $1 billion dollars over the Fiscal Year 2006
level.
I am in no way criticizing the Gentlelady from New York, but I did
not meet with the chairwoman of the subcommittee to discuss the CR. I
know she is fair and reaches out across the aisle, and perhaps her
hands were tied in this unfair process.
To be candid, there are some positive aspects of the State, Foreign
Operations chapter. One is the full funding of the president's request
for Global HIV/AIDS. This funding will provide life saving drugs to
thousands of people infected with HIV/AIDS and will meet President
Bush's goal of treating 2 million people, preventing 7 million new
infections, and caring for 10 million people by 2009.
In addition, another $50 million is provided for the African Union's
Mission in Sudan, and another $113 million for United Nations'
international peacekeeping.
But, these funding increases had to result in decreases elsewhere.
The president's 2007 Budget request included $3.2 billion for the
Economic Support Fund, the continuing resolution cuts $746 million from
the request, and is $148 million below the 2006 enacted level. A
reduction of this magnitude will affect the Administration's ability to
carry out critical foreign policy priorities, including democracy,
infrastructure, and economic development programs in Iraq.
The president's 2007 Request included an increase of $709 million for
stability and reconstruction programs in Iraq, these programs are
essential to improving the safety of our troops in the country. Yet,
the majority directed that there be no mention of funding for anything
related to Iraq in the resolution.
This process is not the way the House's business should be conducted.
I urge members to vote against this measure to make a statement about
the way this entire process has been handled.
Mr. OBEY. Mr. Speaker, I yield 2 minutes to the gentlewoman from New
York (Mrs. Lowey).
Mrs. LOWEY. Mr. Speaker, I just want to say to my good friend, my
colleague, Mr. Wolf, I look forward to working closely with you. And as
you may know, or I am surprised if you don't know, my staff was working
with your staff every single step of the way, and your input and the
input of your staff was invaluable. So we can have further discussions.
Thank you very much.
And I want to commend Chairman Obey and all the staff on both sides
of the aisle, because we worked on the bill together, for their
tireless work.
It is a shame, frankly, that the Republican leadership of the 109th
Congress failed to finish its work on the fiscal year 2007
appropriations bills, leaving vital programs in the lurch.
And while this bill is the result of the Republicans' abdication of
duty in the 109th Congress, it is a fair, balanced, and bipartisan
attempt to continue essential government programs and services and
address critical priorities.
Specifically, this joint resolution provides a total of $4.55 billion
for global HIV/AIDS and TB, almost $300 million above the President's
fiscal year 2007 request, including $724 million for the Global Fund.
We have also increased PEPFAR funding by $75 million over the
President's request to put hundreds of thousands more people on
lifesaving medications.
In addition to keeping the momentum in our HIV/AIDS initiatives, the
joint resolution also addresses the ongoing genocide in Darfur, Sudan.
Two-and-a-half years after Congress declared the atrocities to be
genocide, violence continues unabated. This bill provides $50 million
in additional funds for the only peacekeepers on the ground, the
African Union forces.
Additionally, this bill meets our commitment for Israel and Egypt as
requested for fiscal year 2007.
And, finally, having just returned from Afghanistan, I do believe
there is still a glimmer of hope that our assistance can make a
positive impact there. I am pleased that the joint resolution provides
over $1 billion for reconstruction programs, counternarcotics and other
priorities. And I urge my colleagues to join me in supporting this
joint resolution.
Mr. LEWIS of California. Mr. Speaker, I yield 3 minutes to the
ranking member of our Transportation Subcommittee of Appropriations
(Mr. Knollenberg).
Mr. KNOLLENBERG. Mr. Speaker, I thank the gentleman for yielding.
Mr. Speaker, I rise in opposition to H.J. Res. 20 as it is currently
written.
The CR includes authorization language that will change the formula
for distributing section 8 housing assistance that will cut funding
from 31 States and 1,227 PHAs, permanently.
I make no bones about this. Both in my State of Michigan, in Detroit
and in Pontiac, PHAs in the State of Michigan as a whole would be
severely impacted by the language in this bill. But I am just one of
many Members, 31 States, who are impacted by this legislation, by this
bill.
I ask why are we doing this now? There is no need to make the change
now. There is no urgent situation that needs fixing. Under the current
system, every PHA would have received an increase that fully covers the
cost of running their section 8 program. No one gets cut; no one gets
hurt.
This language has one impact. It creates instability and uncertainty
by creating a new set of winners and losers every year.
And in their very first budget, the new majority would cut $460
million for 1,227 PHAs from what would have been provided if the
program had been left alone. A complete list of the PHAs being impacted
has been made available for all Members to review.
And this is not a one-time sweep, by the way, of so-called excess
funds. The losses being imposed on the PHAs with this language are
permanent losses, not just for this year.
This is not the system that we worked so hard to develop. Where
stability and uncertainty has been the order of the day, we are now
having disruption and uncertainty.
The principal claim by the supporters of this provision is that there
are excess funds in PHAs that can be redistributed to other entities so
that more families can be served. But that is not what the people who
run the program say. Of the nearly $29 billion in funds that has been
provided to the PHAs over the last 2 years, only 2.5 percent is
[[Page H1094]]
actually deemed excess. Two-and-a-half percent. That hardly seems like
a crisis to me.
{time} 1430
To take away those funds permanently from those areas and the
families that could be served is not the solution. Getting the funds
spent on families in those areas by those PHAs is the right solution.
It is clear from the language in the bill that the majority has no
real certainty on what this provision is going to do. They have set
aside $100 million of the funds for unanticipated outcomes. But there
will be no doubt about the outcome, and $100 million is a drop in the
bucket.
Again, according to the Department, the top 10 PHAs, including New
York City, L.A. County, L.A. City, Sacramento, Dallas, Cook County,
Miami/Dade, and San Diego County, will be cut $132 million alone; and
that leaves $328 million, or 70 percent, of the destruction being
caused in smaller PHAs throughout the country untouched.
Finally, the majority has argued that the administration is proposing
the same change in 2008 and 2009. No one has seen the HUD budget. We
have very conflicting information coming through. Regardless of what is
wrong, I would urge all Members on both sides of the aisle with those
PHAs that will be impacted like mine, 31, I strongly suggest they look
at all of these losses; and I strongly oppose this legislation.
Mr. LEWIS of California. Mr. Speaker, I yield for the purpose of
making a unanimous consent request to the gentlewoman from Illinois
(Mrs. Biggert).
(Mrs. BIGGERT asked and was given permission to revise and extend her
remarks.)
Mrs. BIGGERT. I thank the gentleman for yielding.
Mr. Speaker, I support provisions in this resolution that provide
funding for roads and transit, Pell Grants, Special Education, NCLB,
veterans' healthcare and scientific research at places like NIH and
Argonne National Laboratory.
However, I do not support a provision in this bill that will slash
housing assistance for hundreds of families and seniors in my district
and for thousands more nationwide.
It is unfortunate that the leadership and appropriators on the other
side of the aisle decided that it was OK to completely rewrite the
funding formula for the disbursement of Section 8 housing funds in this
bill without consulting with the authorizing committee, Financial
Services. The last time I checked, authorizing on an appropriations
bill is against the House rules. But of course, the rule for this bill
denies us any opportunity to raise a point of order, or amend the bill.
At least during previous Republican-led Congresses, our leadership had
the courtesy to allow Democrats to offer amendments and points of order
and followed rules that reflect a truly democratic process.
Now, I must point out that the other side of the aisle still has a
chance to do this the right way. As the new Ranking Member of the
Financial Services Housing Subcommittee, I am perfectly happy to work
with the majority to craft a comprehensive, bipartisan Section 8 reform
package that will provide stability and predictability for our public
housing authorities and those whom they serve.
My constituents are not well served by this abrupt and drastic change
in the formula, and I would warn my colleagues from Illinois to look
closely at the new numbers for their districts.
The Chicago suburbs are hit hard by this new formula. Each housing
authority in all three counties of my Congressional district will
receive a funding cut this year. The housing authority in Cook County
will lose $8 million, Joliet will lose $1.1 million, Aurora and DuPage
County will lose over a million dollars.
These are not just dollars; these are families and seniors who are
being hurt here. With this bill's proposed cuts to Section 8 housing
funding, more than 100 families in DuPage County, about 150 in Will
County, and thousands across the country will be kicked to the curb in
2007. This is unacceptable.
I am disappointed by the thoughtlessness of those on the other side
of the aisle who determined the new formula and numbers in this bill. I
urge my colleagues to alert their constituents who will become homeless
this year about this fly-by-night formula change that our dear
colleagues have brought to the floor today. I invite the Democratic
leadership to explain to the neediest citizens in the suburbs of
Chicago and in communities across our Nation why they won't have a roof
over their heads in 2007. This is no way to start the New Year.
Mr. OBEY. Mr. Speaker, may I ask how much time remains on both sides.
The SPEAKER pro tempore. The gentleman from Wisconsin has 12 minutes.
The gentleman from California has 16.
Mr. LEWIS of California. Mr. Speaker, I yield 2 minutes to the
gentleman from New Jersey (Mr. Frelinghuysen).
Mr. FRELINGHUYSEN. I thank the gentleman for yielding.
Mr. Speaker, this joint resolution includes important increases above
the fiscal year 2006 level for programs that are truly necessary in our
Commerce Justice Appropriations Subcommittee. I appreciate the
inclusion of increased funding for FBI counterterrorism and
intelligence and for the cost of conducting a timely and accurate focus
on our next census.
Also included are important increases for basic scientific research,
an additional $335 million for the National Science Foundation
research, which will set the groundwork for new technologies that will
spark innovation and ensure our competitiveness.
Mr. Speaker, I am very concerned, however, about funding for drug
enforcement. Funding is included in this resolution to maintain the
current rate of operations for every Department of Justice entity
except the Drug Enforcement Agency. The funding for the DEA will result
in a loss of over 160 agents and deep cuts to the Mobile Enforcement
Team program, the DEA's primary tool to fight meth and violent drug
crime at the State and municipal levels.
With violent crime on the rise and many communities dealing with
methamphetamine, that crisis, this is the wrong time to retreat on
funding for the DEA. For this and many other reasons I rise to oppose
this resolution.
Mr. OBEY. Mr. Speaker, I yield 2 minutes to the distinguished
gentleman from Massachusetts, the chairman of the Financial Services
Committee (Mr. Frank).
Mr. FRANK of Massachusetts. Mr. Speaker, when I hear some of my
Republican colleagues leap to the defense of section 8, I can only
compare that to learning that Ahmadinejad had applied for membership in
B'nai Brith. We have been trying to defend section 8 against assault
for some time.
One form of the assault has been formulaic rules that prevent all of
the money that is appropriated from being spent. Because there is a lot
of support for section 8, the administration has been unhappy when we
have voted here more money than they have asked for. So they have had a
series of formulaic restrictions that keep us from getting it all
spent.
I will note, by the way, that the particular change here that the
committee has recommended is supported by the National Association of
Housing and Redevelopment Officials, the Council of Large Public
Housing Authorities, and the Public Housing Authorities Directors
Association. That is, all of those who administer section 8 through
their organizations endorse it.
Here is the way it has worked. There were formulas put in there that
kept some agencies from spending money which they received. That is,
many agencies were given money that could not be spent and had not been
spent that came out of the hide of agencies that needed to spend more.
What this bill does is to make sure that every appropriation is spent;
and as to those agencies that might be losing an allocation, in every
case they are losing money that they had not been able to spend because
they did not have the legal authority to do it.
This bill guarantees, and we will be here to make good on that
guarantee, that any agencies that can say, well, we are not getting the
same allocation that we got before, they will have reserves available
to them on which they can draw. So we can guarantee that no one will be
unable to serve everyone they are now serving.
What it does mean is that money which this formula has prevented from
being spent in some agencies will now be spent. We will not give some
agencies more than they can spend and some less. We will even it out.
And I stress again that the reserves will be available, and that is
why every one of the agencies in this country that spends money on
section 8, all of the public housing authorities have explicitly
supported this particular change.
[[Page H1095]]
Council of Large Public Housing
Authorities,
Washington, DC, January 31, 2007.
Hon. David Obey,
Chairman, House of Representatives, Committee on
Appropriations, Washington, DC.
Dear Mr. Chairman: The Council of Large Public Housing
Authorities (CLPHA) represents 60 of the nation's largest
housing authorities that own and manage 40 percent of the
nation's public housing and administer over 30 percent of the
Housing Choice Voucher program. We are writing to support the
FY 2007 Joint Resolution in the House of Representatives.
CLPHA greatly appreciates the inclusion of an additional
$300 million for Public Housing Operating Fund in the
legislation and the $487 million increase in the Housing
Choice Voucher account. The increase in operating funds is a
good start in addressing the chronic under-funding of public
housing programs. Public housing is still significantly
under-funded and we look forward to working with Congress to
provide full funding for public housing.
CLPHA commends the House for unraveling the complicated and
inefficient funding system HUD has imposed on housing
authorities since 2004. By adopting a formula. that bases
funding on the most recent 12 months of leasing and cost data
the House action will guarantee funding for all vouchers in
use. The increase in funds, combined with the change in how
these funds are distributed ensure that housing authorities
do not have to reduce the number of families they currently
serve.
However, in order to effectively transition to this new
formula, housing authorities need access to currently
allocated funds to help them to offset losses and to increase
leasing levels in their communities. Congress must protect
these funds and prohibit HUD from recapturing them for either
punitive reasons or to meet a rescission target.
Thank you again for supporting public and assisted housing
programs. We look forward to working with you on these most
important issues.
Sincerely,
Sunia Zaterman,
Executive Director.
____
Public Housing Authorities
Directors Association,
Washington, DC, January 31, 2007.
Hon. David Obey,
Chairman, House of Representatives, Committee on
Appropriations, Washington, DC.
Dear Mr. Chairman: PHADA represents the professional
administrators of almost 1,900 local housing authorities from
all over the United States. I am writing in regard to the FY
2007 Joint Resolution the House of Representatives will soon
consider.
PHADA supports and appreciates the inclusion of $300
million more in operating funds included in the legislation.
The summary accompanying the resolution notes that this
increase still leaves HAs with a significant shortfall in FY
2007. Still, the measure is a welcome step in the right
direction. PHADA wants to work with you and your Senate
colleagues on future efforts to bring public housing funding
up to more adequate levels.
PHADA also supports the Housing Choice Voice (HCV) funding
and formula in the legislation. The association has long
supported a more rational voucher formula based on actual
leasing and voucher costs. Your bill establishes the
inception of such a policy. Recent experience demonstrates
that the Bush Administration's ``snapshot'' voucher formula
has not been successful. Inefficiencies in that formula have
over-funded some housing agencies and underfunded others.
Moving to a formula based on actual voucher lease up and
costs distributes funding to agencies as it is actually being
used and thus guarantees funding for all vouchers in use.
Importantly, the bill also includes $100 million to protect
housing agencies and residents that might otherwise be harmed
during the transition to the new formula.
Thank you again for your support of public and assisted
housing programs. PHADA looks forward to working with you on
the implementation of this legislation and during the FY 2008
budget process that begins next week.
Sincerely,
Timothy G. Kaiser,
Executive Director.
____
National Association of Housing
and Redevelopment Officials,
Washington DC, January 31, 2007.
Hon. David Obey,
Chairman, House Committee on Appropriations, Washington, DC.
Hon. John Olver,
Chairman, House Appropriations Subcommittee on
Transportation, HUD, and Related Agencies, Washington,
DC.
Hon. Jerry Lewis.,
Ranking Member, House Committee on Appropriations,
Washington, DC.
Hon. Joseph Knollenberg,
Ranking Member, House Appropriations Subcommittee on
Transportation, HUD, and Related Agencies, Washington,
DC.
Dear Chairmen and Ranking Members: I am writing to express
the strong support of the National Association of Housing and
Redevelopment Officials (NAHRO) for the Section 8 Tenant-
Based Rental Assistance voucher- renewal formula included in
H. J. Res. 20. Formed in 1933, with more than 22,000 agency
and individual members, NAHRO is the nation's oldest and
largest nonprofit organization composed of local agencies and
officials engaged in creating and maintaining affordable
housing opportunities. NAHRO members are responsible for
administering more than 80 percent of all Section 8 Housing
Choice vouchers.
This revision to the voucher distributional formula is a
long-overdue correction of a policy that has simply proven
not to work. Prior to the adoption of the current law policy
in 2004, the voucher program was highly successful in serving
families it was charged to assist. The funding policies in
place provided the incentives and stability necessary for
agencies to efficiently administer the program.
Since the current law formula was instituted in 2004, this
highly-successful program has lost well over 100,000
vouchers, and by some estimates are as many as 150,000
vouchers, due to inefficiencies in the formula. In contrast,
H. J. Res. 20 will provide all agencies sufficient funding to
continue assisting the same number of families served in FY
2006, and some may be able to make some progress toward
restoring lost vouchers.
Inefficiency of Current Formula Led to Loss of Vouchers
Newspapers across the country have chronicled the numbers
of families whose assistance was abruptly terminated or
denied, dismissed from waiting lists, or for whom rent
burdens have increased since 2004. The loss of assistance for
these tens of thousands of families has not been due to a
shortage of funding provided by Congress. In fact, Congress
appropriated sufficient funding each year to support these
families.
These dramatic losses are, in fact, due to the inefficiency
of tbe formula in place since 2004. The current formula bases
funding to each agency upon an outdated and unrepresentative
``snapshot'' of data from three months in 2004. As a result,
it has distributed more money to some agencies than necessary
to serve 100 percent of their authorized families, while at
the same time, deeply cutting other agencies, forcing them to
reduce the number of families served. The depth of the
inefficiency has grown with time.
H J Res. 20 Makes More Efficient Use of Available Funds
The revised formula contained in H J Res. 20, as written,
will ensure that all public housing agencies will receive at
least the amount necessary to serve the number of families
served in their voucher programs in 2006, plus inflation.
These agencies will not lose funding needed to maintain their
programs at the levels existing in 2006, and some may be able
to make progress in restoring lost vouchers. In addition,
agencies have access to a $100 million adjustment pool for
any agency tbat has increased need due to unforeseen
circumstances or any hardship caused by the transition to the
new formula.
The net result is a more accurate formula than the one in
use from 2004 through 2006. This formula will utilize tbe
funding provided more efficiently than the previous formula,
assisting a larger number of families with the appropriated
amounts than would occur under the previous formula.
Focus Must be on Serving the Greatest Number of Families With Dollars
Provided
Detractors opposing formula revision have unfortunately
relied on data that provides a misleading picture of the
impact of the revised formula. This is because the data focus
solely on the amounts distributed to each community rather
than on the efficiency with which those dollars will be used
to serve eligible families. Because the current formula is
based on outdated ``snapshot'' information, much of the
funding cited as a ``net loss'' under the H J Res. 20 formula
is actually in excess of the amounts needed to serve 100
percent of those agencies' authorized families in 2007. These
are funds that would be distributed but could not be used by
agencies to serve families if the present formula were
retained. Therefore, the data do not provide an accurate
picture of the families served by those dollars, the most
important measure of success for this program.
The agency-by-agcncy listing in the data does not show the
half of all agencies who receive less funding under the
current formula than under H J Res. 20. For these agencies,
the consequences of loss of dollars under the current formula
will have a real and severe impact on the number of families
they can serve. The H J Res. 20 formula is based on the
amount necessary to continue serving the number of families
presently assisted, Failing to enact it would mean that these
agencies will not receive the funds necessary to serve
families in place last year and perhaps make some progress in
restoring lost vouchers,
We do not dispute that there is much unmet need for housing
assistance across the country. However, providing some
agencies with funding above 100 percent of their authorized
vouchers while others continue to lose assistance for
families in place last year is not a sound national policy.
Instead, it is an inefficient use of taxpayers' dollars that
needlessly leaves thousands of families unassisted.
In sum, we congratulate you on your willingness to correct
in this voucher funding policy. Repairing the damage done to
this program over the past three years will take time. The
funding policy provided by H J Res. 20 is a good step in that
direction. With continued funding support from Congress for
both vouchers and the administrative funds necessary to help
families find housing, and
[[Page H1096]]
efficient funding policies, we can set this critical program
back on its former path of success and restore the number of
vouchers lost in recent years.
Please feel free to contact me if you have any questions
about this information
Sincerely,
Saul N. Ramirez, Jr.,
Executive Director.
____
Center on Budget and
Policy Priorities,
Washington, DC, January 30, 2007.
Hon. David Obey,
Chair, Committee on Appropriations,
House of Representatives, Washington, DC.
Dear Congressman Obey: I am writing to state our strong
support for the provisions relating to ``Section 8'' Housing
Choice Vouchers in H.J. Res. 20, the Joint Funding Resolution
for Fiscal Year 2007.
Section 8 vouchers are the leading source of federal
housing assistance, and provide access to affordable housing
for approximately two million low-income households,
including working families with children, the elderly, and
people with disabilities.
H.J. Res. 20 fully funds the President's request for
voucher renewals, by providing the $487 million above the FY
2006 level that the President has said is needed to maintain
the program. In a bill where resources were very constrained,
this is a notable achievement.
Even more important, however, the bill makes a badly needed
change in the formula used to allocate funding among the 2400
state and local housing agencies that administer the voucher
program. For the past three years, voucher funding has been
distributed under a highly flawed and inefficient formula.
This formula relies on outdated data about housing trends,
and has been providing many agencies with more funds than
they can use, while others have had to make significant cuts.
In all, a staggering 150,000 vouchers have been lost since
2004.
H.J. Res. 20 would ensure that the funding for each voucher
in use in 2006 is renewed, by basing agencies' funding on
their actual leasing rates and costs in the prior year. This
simple but critical reform would stem the tide of voucher
cuts, and restore badly needed stability to the program, at
no additional cost to the federal government. By contrast,
had the formula not been altered, thousands of vouchers in
use in 2006 would have been in jeopardy.
I commend you and Members of the Committee for including
this provision in the bill, and would urge others to support
your efforts.
Sincerely,
Robert Greenstein,
Executive Director.
____
National Low Income
Housing Coalition,
Washington, DC, January 31, 2007.
Dear Representative: The National Low Income Housing
Coalition urges you to support H.J. Res. 20, the joint
funding resolution that will fund the federal government for
the remainder of FY07. The bill provides necessary program
increases and policy changes to critical low income housing
programs.
In particular, I want to call to your attention the
provisions that will make important improvements to the
Department of Housing and Urban Development's housing choice
voucher program.
In 2004, HUD and Congress changed the formula for
distribution of housing choice voucher funds to the 2600
public housing agencies that manage the program. This was
done as a cost-cutting measure. Unfortunately, this change
resulted in a system that has proved to be inefficient and
wasteful, while at the same time reducing the number of
vouchers available to many communities.
Under this new distribution formula, many public housing
authorities were forced to reduce the number of families that
were served by vouchers. As a result, there has been a loss
of 150,000 vouchers since 2004, which could have assisted the
large number of families on waiting lists for affordable
housing across the country. At the same time, some public
housing agencies received funding allocations that were
higher than their funding needs and these funds went unused,
Congress has the opportunity to remedy this problem by
adopting the new formula included in H.J. Res. 20. In 2006,
this formula was included in legislation (H.R. 5443) approved
by the House Financial Service Committee and in the Senate
FY07 Transportation, Treasury, the Judiciary and Housing and
Urban Development appropriations bill.
The change allocates funding in FY07 based on each housing
agency's most recent twelve month period of voucher leasing
and cost data, rather than a three-month snapshot in 2004
that is current measure. The National Low Income Housing
Coalition strongly supports this formula change.
We also thank the appropriators for including the
President's FY07 request for voucher funding in the joint
funding resolution. If both the formula change and the
funding increase are enacted, no public housing authority
will have to make cuts to their voucher programs in 2007.
Thank you for considering our views.
Sincerely,
Sheila Crowley, MSW, PhD.,
President and CEO.
____
National Leased Housing
Association,
Washington, DC, January 31, 2007.
Hon. John W. Olver,
Washington, DC.
Dear Representative Olver: The members of the National
Leased Housing Association have reviewed Joint Resolution 20
with regard to funding for the Department of Housing and
Urban Development and are writing to share our perspectives
on the Section 8 programs.
First, we commend both the House and Senate for their
efforts to provide adequate funding for the ``Section 8
Housing Choice Voucher'' program and for the renewals of
Section 8 project-based contracts. These programs are
critical to the provision of affordable housing to 3.5
million households. We are also pleased that the Joint
Resolution addressed the expiration of HUD's restructuring
authority under the Mark to Market program.
Further, we applaud you for addressing how vouchers are
allocated to local communities. We believe that the approach
taken in the Joint Resolution, which bases agencies' budgets
on their leasing costs from the most recent 12 months, is
sound and will lead to the most efficient and stable results
for recipients, administrators, owners and other
stakeholders. In the last three years, we have learned
through experience that basing voucher funding on outdated
information from a potentially unrepresentative three-month
period, leaves many housing agencies without the resources
needed to meet current commitments.
In addition, the rigid funding formula of the past few
years have left current voucher holders vulnerable; minimized
the ability of PHAs to utilize the vouchers authorized by
Congress; exacerbated concerns that it is not prudent to lend
or invest private capital in affordable housing; reduced
housing choice for voucher holders; and inhibited new
construction and rehabilitation of additional low income
units.
By allocating funding based on the realities of the local
marketplace, the Joint Resolution formula will avoid these
problems, and ensure that scarce federal resources are
directed where they are most needed to support current
commitments.
Sincerely,
Denise B. Muha,
Executive Director.
Mr. LEWIS of California. Mr. Speaker, I yield 2 minutes to the
gentlewoman from Texas (Ms. Granger).
Ms. GRANGER. Mr. Speaker, this bill before us eliminates $3.1 billion
that would support the plan, approved by this Congress, to reposition
our military forces throughout the world, a plan that is integral to
our strategy to win the war on terror.
The cut in funding of over $3 billion has been termed devastating by
Army officials. It eliminates the support for our military and their
families, may I remind us, in a time of war.
Let me give you a specific example. Fourteen thousand troops and
their families, including 4,000 children, are scheduled to reposition
from Germany back to the States. Cutting funding for support for this
plan leaves our senior military leaders with the Hobson's choice of
either moving just a few units or moving our servicemembers and their
families on the bases with inadequate infrastructure and training
facilities.
It prevents soldiers from having the type of training facilities they
need to prepare for war. It will create an uncertainty about whether
their children are able to attend adequate schools. It puts in jeopardy
medical treatment facilities that our military members and their
families deserve access to and can force our troops into temporary
housing.
Mr. Speaker, we are at war. Are we willing to cut support for those
who fight this war? I say no, and I will vote ``no.'' This bill
shortchanges our troops and their families and inhibits our ability to
train and prepare our troops and our Nation for future attacks.
Mr. OBEY. Mr. Speaker, I yield myself 15 seconds.
Mr. Speaker, it is not correct that we are cutting BRAC. We are
increasing BRAC $1 billion above the existing levels in the continuing
resolution under which we are operating today. We will deal with the
additional requests for BRAC in the supplemental, and you can bet that
they will get all of their money. But we are adding $1 billion to BRAC.
We are not cutting.
Mr. LEWIS of California. Mr. Speaker, I yield 3 minutes to the
gentleman from Ohio (Mr. Hobson).
Mr. HOBSON. Mr. Speaker, we would not be in this unfortunate
situation if our colleagues in the Senate had actually passed their
bill. The House fulfilled its appropriation responsibilities; the other
body did not.
I have no problem with my majority colleague on the subcommittee, the
distinguished chairman from Indiana. He has involved the minority in
the process, treated us fairly, and attempted to protect our interests.
[[Page H1097]]
Unfortunately, the ground rules established to this resolution
disadvantage the House greatly in the negotiations with the Senate. The
process adopted by the majority has undermined the ability of the
subcommittee to negotiate a good CR and strip out Senate pork. There
are a number of significant funding reductions that should have been
taken in the CR that were not.
Again, I have no fault with my chairman. He tried. But the Senate
balked at even citing the need to protect ``important'' Senators.
Let me offer a few examples. The fiscal year 2004 omnibus
appropriation included a $50 million earmark in the DOE's science
account for an indoor rain forest alongside the interstate highway in
Iowa, which I opposed, and so did my ranking member at the time, now
the chairman.
The Department of Energy has been unable to execute this earmark
because the sponsor has not produced the necessary non-Federal matching
funds. Nearly $45 million remains unspent and unspendable.
The House proposed to rescind this earmark, but the Senate refused to
consider it. If ever there were a piece of low-hanging fruit ripe to be
stripped out of the resolution, this is it. The 109th Congress had its
infamous Bridge to Nowhere. The 110th Congress is now building its own
legacy, starting with a $50 million ``roadside attraction'' in Iowa.
In the NNSA weapons account, the House identified several sources of
significant savings. The House proposed a total of $495 million of
reductions from weapons activities, but the Senate again refused to
accept this reduction because of perceived impact in New Mexico. The
final CR contains only $94.5 million of reduction, leaving $400 million
of savings untapped.
In the fossil fuel account, 2006 funding in Energy included $49.7
million for oil and gas research, which is funded at discretionary
spending in fiscal year 2006, but which is now mandatory by the Energy
Policy Act of 2005.
The House proposed again, rightly, to eliminate this discretionary
funding in the CR, which only duplicates the new mandatory funding.
Instead, the Senate declared this account to be ``untouchable'' in the
strong interest of a particular Senator in West Virginia.
Given the House majority passed H.R. 6 to take away perceived
windfall profits in the oil and gas industry, it is surprising that it
would now allow the same industry to ``double dip'' in the CR.
In summary, I would say again that the process being followed with
this CR greatly disadvantages the House in our negotiations with the
other body. Members should not delude themselves that we have stripped
all of the pork from the CR. We have only succeeded in stripping out
the House earmarks. Over in the other Chamber, it is, frankly, business
as usual.
We have had the opportunity to realize a half billion dollars of
savings in energy and water portions of the CR and to apply those funds
to other priority needs such as education, health care and law
enforcement. I hope you all realize that in voting for this continuing
resolution today means that you have decided that several hundred
million of tax dollars will be better spent on welfare for the nuclear
weapons labs than on these other pressing national needs.
I encourage Members on both sides of the aisle to vote against this
resolution and get rid of the pork.
Mr. OBEY. Mr. Speaker, I yield myself 15 seconds.
Mr. Speaker, if ever there was a case of the pot calling the kettle
black, we have just heard it.
The gentleman is objecting because we were not able to go back 2
years to excise from a previous appropriation the rain forest project
which was put into your bill when you were chairman. We have eliminated
all earmarks for today and tomorrow. We cannot be expected to correct
all of your mistakes.
The SPEAKER pro tempore. There remain 9 minutes, 50 seconds for the
gentleman from California and 9 minutes and 30 seconds for the
gentleman from Wisconsin.
Mr. LEWIS of California. Mr. Speaker, I yield 2 minutes to the
gentleman from Georgia (Mr. Kingston).
Mr. KINGSTON. Mr. Speaker, I thank the ranking member, Mr. Lewis, for
the opportunity to speak on this bill.
I oppose the bill; and the reason why, Mr. Speaker, is I think it is
very important for our constituents to understand.
Yes, there was a mandate in November as there had been a growing
mandate throughout the year to get rid of earmarks. Now when my
constituents supported the President's call to get rid of $18 billion
worth of earmarks, what they thought he meant was reducing spending $18
billion. They do not want earmarks eliminated for the sake of taking
them out of the hands of elected people and putting them in the hands
of non-elected bureaucrats, yet that is what this omnibus bill does.
Now in the ag section, the total spending has gone from 100 to $150
billion down. That sounds like a good savings, some of it. You can
argue, where did the savings come from?
{time} 1445
One thing that was eliminated, $70 million in environmental quality
incentive program, $44 million for conservation security programs.
These are programs that help farmers, and they have a cost share. It
helps farmers plan on environmental repairs, keeping nutrients out of
flowing into streams, safe environmental practices on dairies like
building lagoons, things like that.
The bill also eliminated $74 million in watershed and flood
prevention, building small dams, and it eliminates $2 million from the
USDA biomass program. Now at a time when we all want energy
independence, eliminating the biomass program in the USDA doesn't make
sense to me.
Also it eliminates $11 million in food stamp funding for the
employment and training portion of food stamps. All important things.
But where does the money go? For one thing, it goes to the FDA
bureaucrats. The FDA wanted about a $20 million increase. They get,
under this bill, a $100 million increase, without a single committee
hearing on it.
Again, though, it is not just that the FDA is getting money. It is
that the taxpayers aren't getting money. Earmarks have been eliminated,
but the money does not go back to the taxpayers. It simply goes to the
bureaucracy. And that is why I think we should recommit this bill
because we can do a better job.
Mr. OBEY. Mr. Speaker, I yield 2 minutes to the gentleman from
Indiana (Mr. Visclosky), the chairman of the Energy and Water
Subcommittee.
(Mr. VISCLOSKY asked and was given permission to revise and extend
his remarks.)
Mr. VISCLOSKY. Mr. Speaker, I would, first of all, like to thank
Chairman Obey. Under his leadership, the Appropriations Committee, and
this Congress, has moved quickly to bring resolution to the fiscal work
left undone in the last Congress.
I would also like to thank my partner, Dave Hobson, who just spoke a
moment ago, and all of the members of the Energy and Water Subcommittee
for their dedication and cooperation. And while I am at it, I would
associate myself with the remarks of Mr. Hobson relative to the
negotiations with the other body.
I am disappointed that we are here today finishing a CR from last
year. I would have liked my first role as the chairman of the Energy
and Water Subcommittee to be focused on next year's responsibilities,
instead of cleaning up the fiscal mess that was left to us.
Mr. Speaker, most importantly, this bill provides $300 million to
improve the Department of Energy's ability to proceed with vital
renewable energy and conservation research and development. This will
allow the Department of Energy to pursue more technologies that would
hold promise for reducing the emission of greenhouse gases and the
importation of foreign oil while supporting the growth of our economy.
Given the energy crisis facing our Nation, and the implications it
poses for our economy, our environment, and national security, these
investments in energy research simply could not wait any longer.
This measure also provides $200 million to bolster physical science
research. This increase is a first step in a long overdue improvement
in government support for research into physical sciences.
[[Page H1098]]
Looking ahead, I hope to work with my partner, Mr. Hobson, as well as
again, all of the members of the subcommittee. And I would indicate to
my colleagues that I remain very concerned about the size of our
weapons complex and the lack of progress being made to rationalize it
in conformity to existing treaty agreements and current international
circumstances.
Given this, and several other major initiatives being proposed by the
Department of Energy, coupled with its fundamental failure to bring
major projects in on time, let alone under budget, I will ask for the
subcommittee to carefully and judiciously examine all major initiatives
being undertaken so that we may fulfill our responsibility as good
stewards of the people's money.
Mr. LEWIS of California. Mr. Speaker, I yield 2 minutes to Mr. Wamp,
the Appropriations Committee ranking member of the legislative branch.
Mr. WAMP. Mr. Speaker, the first 100 hours is over. That was the easy
part; softballs, for the most part, that you campaigned on and that
many of us joined you on. But this is where the tough work of governing
begins, really, and I don't want to join in the blame game because
there is plenty to go around from last year and the Senate Republicans
and this year in this bill.
But as a 10-year member of the Appropriations Committee, I would ask
the distinguished chairman of the Appropriations Committee to bring
this legislation to the committee. Don't bring it straight to the
floor. $463 billion worth of spending, and it is not a CR. It is not a
clean CR. A lot of bells and whistles here.
As a matter of fact, the distinguished chairman is known for carrying
pencils in his coat pocket, and I wonder how many of those pencils he
burned up putting this together. It was a lot of work. I commend you
for this work. But it is a huge shift in priorities and it didn't come
to the committee. So that is what I would ask is you go through the
regular order and let's not do this again.
And then let me ask you specifically about the legislative branch
portion of this bill. Page 137, because our chief administrative
officer, I understand, will have money in this CR to stand up a
committee which is controversial, even on your own side, this proposed
Select Committee for Climate Change. And I would yield the balance of
my time to you, Mr. Chairman, to ask, is there money in the legislative
branch portion of this bill to fund what is not an authorized committee
yet, but the proposed committee, Select Committee for Climate Change?
I yield to the chairman.
Mr. OBEY. The answer is that there is money, there is adequate money
to provide for that committee, if, in fact, it is created. But the
formal action on creation has not yet taken place.
Mr. WAMP. And reclaiming my time, the Katrina Select Committee on our
side was roughly a $400,000 committee. My understanding, the authority
under this bill for the Select Committee on Climate Change would be
about three times that amount, $1.2 million. I think we need to go
through the regular order there as well.
Mr. OBEY. Mr. Speaker, I yield 1 minute to the gentleman from New
York (Mr. Weiner) for a colloquy.
Mr. WEINER. As you know, Mr. Chairman, the President and the
Republican Congress drastically cut funding for the highly successful
COPS program. In 1999 Congress appropriated $1.2 billion for the COPS
program, and funding has plummeted since. The President has zeroed out
this program every year since taking office and Congress gave no
funding for COPS in either fiscal year 2006, or in the House-passed
SSJC bill for fiscal year 2007. While the Office of Justice Programs,
Community Oriented Policing Services account referenced in section
20901 of the continuing resolution today includes other worthy
programs, is it your preference that the additional funding be used for
enhancement grants which can be used to hire additional police?
Mr. OBEY. My preference is that additional funding would be available
for enhancement grants which can be used for hiring. But that final
decision will be up to the administration.
Mr. LEWIS of California. Mr. Speaker, could I inquire as to how much
time is remaining on each side?
The SPEAKER pro tempore (Mr. Scott of Georgia). The gentleman from
California (Mr. Lewis) has 5 minutes, 50 seconds. The gentleman from
Wisconsin (Mr. Obey) has 6\1/2\ minutes.
Mr. LEWIS of California. Mr. Speaker, I yield 2 minutes to the
gentlelady from Virginia (Mrs. Drake).
Mrs. DRAKE. Mr. Speaker, I keep hearing from the other side of the
aisle that they support our troops. Yet, this CR removes $3 billion
from our troops and their families. I offered an amendment to fix this
and they refused.
Mr. OBEY. Mr. Speaker, I yield myself 10 seconds.
I, once again, repeat, this bill does not cut BRAC. It adds $1
billion to BRAC. The fiscal 2006 level was $1.5 billion. This bill will
have $2.5 billion, and we will be adding more in the emergency
supplemental.
Mrs. DRAKE. Would the gentleman yield for a question?
Mr. OBEY. With whatever time I have remaining of the 15 seconds.
Mrs. DRAKE. Well, the article that I am reading, not just information
that I have, is a continuing resolution released Monday night axes more
than half of the money the Pentagon needs to meet its base realignment.
Mr. OBEY. With all due respect, I don't live in the world of
newspaper articles. We produced this bill. I know what is in it. I
would hope the gentlewoman would also learn what is in it.
Mr. LEWIS of California. Mr. Speaker, I reserve the balance of my
time.
Mr. OBEY. Mr. Speaker, I yield 1 minute to the distinguished majority
leader, Mr. Hoyer.
Mr. HOYER. Mr. Speaker, I want to congratulate Mr. Obey, who was the
ranking member in the last Congress, and who worked with Mr. Lewis to
try to pass our appropriation bills and, in fact, we passed all but one
of the appropriation bills. Unfortunately, we reported the Labor Health
bill, which is the largest bill, other than the Defense bill, in June,
and it failed to ever get to the floor of this House because it
included minimum wage, and that was not favored by the majority.
Now that we are in the majority, we are left with unfinished
business. The gentlelady from Virginia mentions cutting something. We
haven't cut anything. As a matter of fact, we have added $1 billion.
If you had passed your appropriation bills, you may have been able to
fund at appropriate levels. But you did not pass your appropriation
bills. Yet, we hear on the floor today constant complaining from the
other side of the aisle that they don't like the way we fixed their
failures.
Well, very frankly, I think the American public will. First of all,
the American public will be pleased that we are acting, that we are
moving on this legislation, which is, essentially, the funding of 9
appropriation bills that failed to move through the House of
Representatives and the Senate and to the President as they should
have.
Mr. Obey has worked very hard with Senator Byrd. I know Mr. Lewis'
staff has been very engaged in this as well. I know the Senate staff
has been engaged in it. And I am hopeful that this bill will not only
pass this House with a very handy vote.
There are many people in this House, on the Republican side of the
aisle who asked to achieve exactly what Mr. Obey has achieved in this
bill. He has taken care of the veterans. He has taken care of veterans
health. He has taken care of, for the first time in 4 years, trying to
get college students Pell Grants that will give them some additional
help to fund their college costs. When we had that vote on the floor of
this House, we had 124 Republicans join us in that vote. This is one
additional step in trying to get college students a more affordable
education.
Mr. Obey has moved in a number of areas to make our investments more
productive and a better return for the American people. And this bill
will provide for getting last year's business done that was left
undone, so that we can move on to have what Mr. Wamp wants, and I want,
and Mr. Obey wants and Mr. Lewis wants. That is, full and open
discussion of the bills in subcommittee, in the full committee and on
this floor. I think that is what we will have.
But ladies and gentlemen of this House, we need to complete last
year's undone business. It wasn't our fault that it was not done. But
whoever's
[[Page H1099]]
fault it was, it is not useful to say that it is your fault or my fault
or somebody else's fault. It is useful to say we need to move forward.
We need to fund government services. We need to fund the priorities of
the American people. That is what this continuing resolution does.
I congratulate Mr. Obey, and I urge all of our colleagues to support
this bill so we can finally, one-third of the way into the fiscal year,
finally do what we should have done by September 30 of 2006.
Mr. LEWIS of California. Mr. Speaker, somewhat responding to the
majority leader's comment, I can't help but be moved to say that he
suggested directly that Mr. Obey had spent a good deal of time with the
gentleman from the Senate, Mr. Byrd, the two Members involved in this
bill, and beyond that, a good deal of contact with our staff. Beyond
those two Members, let me say that this has been a very fine product.
It is a staff, nonelected staffperson's piece of work that involves
$463.5 billion of appropriations.
I must say that it is important for me that the body know that I am
committed to reducing the rate of growth of spending. $463.5 billion is
a pretty significant rate of growth.
{time} 1500
But in the meantime, as we go about reducing spending growth, I will
also work in a bipartisan spirit to move our bill through the committee
and on time and under budget.
I will not, however, respond to either intimidation or any threats
relative to the way we are handling the appropriations process. The
Appropriations Committee will not become a small colony in the empire
of this new leadership.
We renew our commitment to bills produced by regular order that will
serve as a credit to our committee, to the national interest, as well
as to the people from our districts we pretend to serve.
With that, the leader and I will work further together on this
matter, but I am very concerned about the volume of staff direction
here where in the final analysis the people know that they are not
elected representatives of the House.
Mr. Speaker, I reserve the balance of my time.
Mr. OBEY. I yield the gentleman (Mr. Hoyer) another minute.
Mr. HOYER. I thank the gentleman for his comments, but I want to say,
first of all, when he talks about $463 billion, I read in the newspaper
today where OMB was very pleased that we stayed within the caps imposed
by the Republican-passed budget. We took the Republican-passed budget,
we took those numbers, we stayed within those caps. That is exactly
what you did, Mr. Lewis, when you were chairman of the committee
because that was the direction from the Budget Committee. I am
understanding that the White House even said that they were pleased
with the fact that we stayed within the numbers when you talk about
spending.
Secondly, let me say that you and I both served on the Appropriations
Committee for a long period of time. In recent years, of course, we
have not passed all the appropriation bills in the calendar year, much
less the fiscal year, and we would pass omnibus appropriation bills
with hundreds and hundreds of billions of dollars larger than this
bill. One was passed January 31, the other was passed February 5. They
were passed as conference reports with 1 hour of debate and no
amendments, in which substantial legislative language had been added in
conference and not vetted on this floor or in committee.
I understand the gentleman's representations, but he and I have been
here a long time and we have a long history of knowing what has
transpired in the past. This is a process that was required by the
failure of the last Congress to do its work. It has been done in a way
that tries to get it done so that we can get on to do exactly what the
gentleman wants for the 2008 bills, give them a full airing, full
hearings. And I predict to my distinguished and very close friend, Mr.
Lewis, we are going to have a lot more hearings as we did when we were
in charge, we had more hearings than we have had.
We are going to have oversight, and we are going to have careful
scrutiny of the taxpayers' dollars. And I look forward to joining my
friend in that process in the regular order. We are doing this so that
we can get on to that process to do exactly what the gentleman suggests
because it is the right thing to do. And I look forward to working with
him on that process.
Mr. LEWIS of California. Mr. Speaker, I yield back the balance of my
time.
Mr. OBEY. How much time do I have remaining?
The SPEAKER pro tempore. The gentleman from Wisconsin has 4 minutes
and 5 seconds.
Mr. OBEY. Mr. Speaker, I won't take the full 4 minutes. Let me simply
say that it is necessary for the House to move forward with this
legislation. It is easy to nitpick. It is interesting to me that the
minority today has chosen to chastise us for decisions that we made not
to go back 2 years and repeal some of the mistakes that the minority
made when they were in the majority. They argue that we should have
done that; they argue that we should have lived with a simple
continuing resolution at '06 levels. If we do that, that would mean we
would not have the added funding for veterans health care, we would not
have the added funding for BRAC, we would not have the added funding
for the National Institutes of Health; we would not be able to raise
the Pell grant by $260 for the maximum grant; we would not have the
extra funding for energy research.
I would ask Members to recognize that after a full year of the
Republican minority not being able to produce and finish their work, it
is time for us to finish their work so we can move on. The President is
producing his new budget on February 5, which is next Monday. We need
to clear the decks so we can deal with that afresh.
I ask for an ``aye'' vote.
Mr. DOOLITTLE. Mr. Speaker, I rise today to express great concern
over the decreased funding for the Drug Enforcement Administration
(DEA) in the Continuing Resolution for Fiscal Year 2007. Specifically,
I am concerned about the drastic cuts to the Mobile Enforcement Teams
(MET) and the Regional Enforcement Teams (RET). The MET and RET teams
are on the front line each and every day assisting state and local law
enforcement agencies to combat the onslaught of drug trafficking. The
MET program will be reduced by $30 million and the RET Program will be
reduced by $9 million. The priorities in this bill do not represent the
priorities of this Nation. How is it that $50 million can be set aside
for a rainforest in Iowa in a so-called earmark-free continuing
resolution, yet the DEA faces a massive reduction?
The district I represent, California's Fourth Congressional District,
will feel the effects of these cuts. In particular, Nevada County faces
a tremendous battle with methamphetamines every day. Methamphetamines
are becoming an epidemic in this country. This reduction in funding
will not only hurt the efforts of law enforcement, but also everyone
who lives in a neighborhood being overrun with drugs and drug
traffickers. This is the wrong time to be cutting the federal
government's primary tool to combat methamphetamine on a local level.
Mr. KUCINICH. Mr. Speaker, today Congress is considering a long-term
continuing appropriations bill to fund large portions of the Federal
Government through the end of fiscal year 2007. This legislation is
necessary because Congress did not complete the appropriations process
last year.
There are many reasons to support this bill. For example, the bill
increases Pell Grant funding to make college more affordable, IDEA
funding by $200 million to help our neediest students, and Head Start
funding by $100 million to give our youngest kids the opportunity to
learn. Funding for housing opportunities is increased by $1.4 billion.
Without the increase HUD would be forced to deny approximately 220,000
voucher renewals.
The bill also boosts funding for local law enforcement by increasing
funding for both the COPS program and the Byrne Justice Assistance
Grants which directly impact funding for local law enforcement efforts.
NASA aeronautics funding, vital to the Cleveland economy, was
increased by $166 million over the president's budget request.
Furthermore, the bill contained an extension of the layoff ban, and
prevents the NASA Administrator from gutting NASA Glenn.
I also support the $3.6 billion increase in veterans healthcare
funding that provides service for an anticipated increase of at least
325,000 patients and to meet rising healthcare costs. In the same vein,
Defense Health Programs are increased by $1.2 billion to provide care
for service members and their families--including treating service
members wounded in action in Iraq and Afghanistan.
Our Nation is facing a crisis in healthcare. The bill provides
necessary relief for the Community Health Center to finance over 300
new
[[Page H1100]]
or expanded health centers, serving an estimated 1.2 million new
patients. The bill boosts funding for the Ryan White CARE Grants, the
National Institutes of Health and the Indian Health Service.
The bill adds $1.3 billion to expand efforts to combat HIV/AIDS and
TB. At the same time, $248 million was added to the Agency for
International Development Malaria Programs to expand its bilateral
global malaria initiative activities.
The bill adds considerable funding for the protection of the
environment by adding $197.1 million for the Clean Water State
Revolving Fund. The revolving fund is distributed by formula and will
fund additional water and wastewater infrastructure projects in every
state, including Ohio.
The bill adds $100 million to cover operational shortfalls for parks,
refuges, forests and other public lands; including facilities in
northeastern Ohio.
The bill adds $1.5 billion for the Energy Efficiency and Renewable
Energy Resources program to accelerate research and development
activities for renewable energy and energy efficiency programs.
Finally, the bill forces greater transparency in the activities of
the World Bank, requiring them to report public disclosure of loan
agreements between World Bank and its borrowers. This sunshine rule
will help ensure the World Bank loans are not destructive to third
world nations.
Unfortunately, this bill includes over $6 billion in nuclear weapons
funding that I oppose. I have voted against the Energy and Water
Appropriations bill, which contains funding for nuclear weapons, since
2002. I cannot bring myself to vote for any legislation that further
endangers the world. I regret not being able to vote for all the
positive aspects of this bill, but my conscience and my concerns about
the threat which nuclear weapons pose to the world matter more.
Furthermore, I am concerned about the potential loss of jobs in
Cleveland relating to the BRAC process. I appreciate that the bill
contains additional funds for the BRAC process. I urge the Committee on
Appropriations to fully fund the BRAC process as soon as possible to
ensure the additional DFAS jobs can be transferred to Cleveland as
previously scheduled.
Mr. CLAY. Mr. Speaker, I rise in strong support of H.J. Res. 20,
providing further continuing appropriations for fiscal year 2007.
I commend the Appropriations Committee for working in a bipartisan
manner to construct a resolution that continues to fund the government
for the remainder of the fiscal year. As Chairman of the Oversight
Subcommittee on Information Policy, Census, and National Archives, I am
especially pleased to note that H.J. Res. 20 restores funding that is
absolutely vital to conducting an accurate and cost-efficient 2010
census.
The funding in this bill will enable the Census Bureau to move
forward with plans for the first-ever automated census in 2010. In
addition to saving time and money, utilizing hand-held computers will
improve accuracy and ensure the most precise enumeration possible of
the American people. According to Preston Jay Waite, Associate Director
for the Decennial Census, field trials have resulted in a 91 percent
accuracy rate.
As preparations for the 2010 Census proceed, active oversight will be
important to ensure that all Americans are counted fairly. In 2000, the
national census missed at least three million people--mostly the poor
and minorities. I look forward to working with Ranking Member Michael
Turner of Ohio and my other Subcommittee colleagues to conduct
essential oversight needed to see that this never happens again.
Mr. Speaker, the action we have taken today will guarantee that we
don't retreat from the goal of using technology to improve the way we
keep track of changes in our population. I thank my colleagues for
passing this continuing resolution and will support efforts in the
Senate to pass this legislation with the same commitment to adequately
funding the 2010 Census.,
Ms. JACKSON-LEE of Texas. Mr. Speaker, I rise in support of H.J. Res.
20, which among other things avert the impeding budgetary train wreck
left by the Republican-controlled 109th Congress. I want to pay
particular tribute to Mr. Obey, the Chairman of the Appropriations
Committee for his incredible work in fashioning this legislation that
will enable us to put behind us the mess left by last Congress and get
on to the important business of addressing the real and pressing needs
of the American people.
Mr. Speaker, last November millions of Americans went to the polls to
register the strong disgust with the Republican dominated control of
the legislative and executive branches of our Federal Government.
Americans were fed up with a Republican Congress and its legacy of a
culture of corruption, its failure to address the pressing needs of the
American people, its unwillingness to provide effective oversight of
the executive branch, its fiscal irresponsibility that resulted in
record budget deficits and added trillions to the national debt, and
its ability to complete one of the most basic tasks of the legislative
branch: to pass the appropriations bills needed to fund the government.
Is it any wonder that Americans were voting for a new way of doing the
people's business when they elected the Democratic majorities in the
House and Senate? I think not. We Democrats promised a new and better
direction for America. And we have been delivering.
Mr. Speaker, behold what we accomplished in less than the first 100
legislative hours of our majority. We passed H.R. 1, which implements
the recommendations of the 911 Commission; we passed H.R. 2, raising
the minimum wage by $2.10 an hour over three years and providing a much
needed raise to nearly 5 million workers; we passed H.R. 3, which will
provide funding for embryonic stem cell research and provide hope for
millions of Americans suffering from some of the most debilitating
illnesses.
But we did not stop there. We passed H.R. 4, which requires Medicaid
to negotiate lower prescription drug prices for our seniors and
disabled citizens; we passed H.R. 5, which will make college more
affordable to middle and working class Americans by cutting the
interest rate on federally insured student loans in half; and we passed
H.R. 6, which is a substantial start in making this country more energy
independent.
And we accomplished all this, Mr. Speaker, after draining the swamp
and ending the culture of corruption by adopting the strongest,
toughest ethics and lobbying rules in history.
Today, we clean up the fiscal mess left by the Republican-led 109th
Congress. The last Congress abdicated its duty to be a faithful and
responsible steward of the public fisc. They shirked their
responsibility to establish the right priorities and make the right
choices to serve the American people. They failed to pass nine of
the eleven appropriations bills needed to sustain the operations of
government for Fiscal Year 2007.
Mr. Speaker, thanks to your superb leadership, and especially the
extraordinary legislative craftsmanship of our remarkable Chairman of
the Appropriations Committee, we rectify these Republican failures
today. The Continuing Resolution we take up today, H.J. Res. 20, is not
the ideal manner to fund the government and contains some provisions
that each of us might not like, unlike the President's decision to
escalate the war in Iraq, the choices reflected in H.J. Res. 20
represent the best available alternatives out of a universe of worst
choices. That is why, Mr. Speaker, I rise to offer my support for the
Fiscal Year 2007 Continuing Resolution, and my appreciation to the
leadership, the Chairman and members of the Committee, and for all my
colleagues who join me in voting for H.J. Res. 20.
Mr. Speaker, H.J. Res. 20, totals $463.5 billion, the amount
remaining under the Republican budget resolution for the current fiscal
year. Most programs are funded at FY 2006 levels with increases to
cover the cost of pay increases. Of course, it was also necessary to
make additions to maintain staffing levels, avoid furloughs, and
generally meet increased costs or workloads for agencies, particularly
the Department of Justice, the federal judiciary, the Social Security
Administration, the FAA (including air traffic control), international
peacekeeping operations, the Indian Health Service, the Food and Drug
Administration, and the USDA Food Safety Inspection Service.
But Mr. Speaker, because the new Democratic majority knows how to,
and does not shirk from, choosing wisely and setting the right
priorities, in this continuing resolution we were also able to provide
significant new investments for high priority needs in many areas,
including veterans healthcare and assistance, law enforcement, public
health, housing and education, scientific research, energy
independence, transportation, and the environment. Let me discuss
briefly some of the more important and beneficial provisions.
veterans Affairs
In the area of veterans healthcare, the resolution provides $32.3
billion, an increase of $3.6 billion above the FY 2006 funding levels
to provide service for the anticipated increase of at least 325,000
veteran patients and to meet rising healthcare costs', especially of
our returning soldiers from Iraq and Afghanistan. As President Lincoln
reminded us 142 years ago, we have a moral obligation to care for him
whom has born the battle, and for his widow and orphan. We are going to
keep that commitment.
We also provide $21.2 billion, an increase of $1.2 billion to provide
care for service members and their families, including treating service
members wounded in action in Iraq and Afghanistan.
Mr. Speaker, we will never neglect the needs of those who proudly don
the uniform in the defense of the United States. That is why the
resolution provides $13.4 billion to fund the Basic Allowance for
Housing, an increase of $500 million. This increased funding is
[[Page H1101]]
needed to provide a down payment towards the funding shortfall caused
by higher housing rates.
Public Safety and Law Enforcement
In the vitally important area of public safety, law enforcement, and
crime prevention, the resolution increases the funding for the Federal
Bureau of Investigation by $216.6 million to fully fund 31,359
positions, including 12,213 agents and 2,577 Intelligence Analysts--
doubling the number of Intelligence Analysts since September 11th. This
amount also includes $100 million to proceed the FBI's plan to move
from paper-based case management to electronic data sharing. The
resolution also includes $147.4 million for counter-terrorism and
intelligence infrastructure.
Mr. Speaker, as a member of the Judiciary Subcommittee on Crime,
Terrorism, and Homeland Security, I know that investing in crime
prevention programs is an effective use of the taxpayers' precious
dollars. That is why I am pleased that the resolution provides $520
million for Byrne Justice Assistance Formula Grants, an increase of
$109 million, and $542 million for Community Oriented Policing Services
(COPS), an increase of $70 million. Together these increases are the
first step in reversing the drastic cuts to State and local law
enforcement programs made since the Bush administration came into
office in 2001. I will immediately make the request for the U.S.
Justice Department to fund the new crime-prevention needs of Houston.
Mr. Speaker, as we all know, education is destiny. The surest and
most certain path to continued American prosperity lies in an educated
citizenry. That is why I am especially pleased that for the first time
in 4 years, the maximum Pell Grant has been increased, by $260 to
$4,310. This long-overdue increase will help over 5.3 million students
pay rising college expenses.
The resolution also provides $10.7 billion for IDEA Part B State
grants, an increase of $200 million to help school districts serve
6.9 million children with disabilities and special needs. If we are
going to be serious about leaving no child behind, then we must make
sure to adequately fund special education.
But there is more, Mr. Speaker. The resolution increases Title I K-12
Grants by $125 million and provides more than 38,000 additional low-
income children performing below grade level with intensive reading and
math instruction. Thus, we have begun to reverse the decline since 2005
in Title 1 support for elementary and secondary schools at a time of
record enrollments (55 million students in 2006) and pressures for more
accountability from No Child Left Behind requirements.
The resolution also contains $125 million targeted to the 6,700
schools that failed to meet No Child Left Behind requirements in the
2005-2006 school year, enabling them to implement improvement
activities, such as teacher training, tutoring programs, and curriculum
upgrades. According to the Department of Education, without this
funding more than 80 percent of high-poverty districts would be unable
to afford these improvements.
The value and efficacy of Head Start is well known and long
established. That is why it is so scandalous that the Bush
Administration has cut this program by 11 percent in real dollars since
2002. The resolution increases funding by $103.7 million to help
prevent a drop in Head Start enrollments. The money the Department of
Education will have will still allow for teacher incentive pay for
Houston.
Public Health Programs
The resolution provides $1.9 billion, an increase of $206.9 million
to finance more than 300 critically need new or expanded health
centers, serving an estimated 1.2 million new patients. We also
increase Ryan White CARE Grants by $75.8 million to bring it to its
authorized funding level of $1.2 billion.
Scientific Research
One of the most important investments this nation can make to secure
its long-term future is in the area of scientific research. As a long-
term member of the Science Committee, I am keenly aware that to keep
ahead of our international competitors we cannot scrimp when it comes
to expanding the Nation's intellectual capital and knowledge base. That
is why the resolution wisely funds the National Institutes of Health at
$28.9 billion, an increase of $619.5 million. This level of funding
reverses a projected decline in new NIH research project awards and
supports an additional 500 research project grants, 1,500 first time
investigators, and expands funding for high risk and high impact
research.
The resolution also provides an additional $50 million in new funding
for the National Institute of Standards and Technology's (NIST)
innovation programs for physical science research and lab support for
nanotechnology and neutron research. Equally important, the resolution
increases provides funding for the National Science Foundation in the
amount of $4.7 billion, an increase of $335 million. This increase is a
down-payment towards enhancing U.S. global competitiveness by investing
in basic science research.
Mr. Speaker, in an area close to my heart and important to my
district, which is often referred to as the Energy Capital of the
nation, the resolution increases funding to the Department of Energy's
Office of Science by $200 million to support cutting edge research,
including new energy technologies such as improved conversion of
cellulosic biomass to biofuels. I also appreciate that the resolution
increases funding for energy efficiency and renewable energy resources
by $300 million which will enable us to accelerate research and
development activities for renewable energy and energy efficiency
programs. NASA and in particular the Johnson Space Center can be funded
by redisbursing funds in the Agency to avoid lost jobs and the stopping
of important work. I will work for the continued work of NASA.
Housing and urban development
Mr. Speaker, as Hurricane Katrina laid bare for all the world to see,
affordable housing has for too long been a neglected priority in this
country. The resolution makes a modest but useful stab at correcting
this woeful situation. The Section 8 Tenant-Based Program is funded at
$15.9 billion, an increase of $502 million, which will enable the
Department of Housing and Urban Development to renew 70,000 housing
vouchers currently in use by individuals and families. The Section 8
Project-Based Program is budgeted at $5.9 billion, an increase of $939
million. This much needed increase will help HUD renew 157,000 housing
vouchers currently in use by individuals and families.
Although no one likes to live in public housing, we must remember
that for millions of our fellow citizens they are their home and
sanctuary. For too long they have been neglected, which has led to an
accelerated state of disrepair. That is why it is encouraging to see
that the resolution provides an extra increase $300 million to enable
Public Housing Authorities (PHAs) to address critical operating needs
after last year's energy hikes saddled them with $287 million in
unexpected utility costs. Although this increase is still $672 million
short of the total estimated need of $4.5 billion, it will help to
restore staff levels, maintenance activities, elderly service
coordinators, security officers and equipment.
Also Mr. Speaker, the resolution contains language changing the
funding formula for the Section 8 Tenant-Based Program. The current
formula is based on information from 2004 that is out of date and
results in some Public Housing Authorities (PHAs) getting more money
then they can spend while others have less than they need. The
resolution corrects this problem by directing HUD to use the most
recent 12-month leasing and cost data. Last week HUD announced that a
similar provision would be included in their 2008 budget request to be
implemented in 2009. By including the language now, 2007 funds will be
put to their intended use--funding housing units for low-income
families and individuals rather than sitting unspent.
Transportation Guarantees
Next to human capital, few things are as important to the nation's
economic future as is its physical infrastructure, especially its roads
and bridges. That is why it is very good news that the federal aid
highway program is fully funded at the level guaranteed in the SAFETEA-
LU Act by providing an obligation limitation of $39.1 billion for FY
2007, $3.5 billion over the FY 2006 enacted level; and funding for
Federal mass transit programs is increased by $470 million to $8.97
billion to meet the transit funding guarantees as required by SAFETEA-
LU.
Global Health
Mr. Speaker, America is a generous and compassionate Nation. That is
why it is consistent with our values that the resolution increases
Global HIV/AIDS funding by $1.3 billion to $4.5 billion. This increase
will help to expand efforts to combat HIV/AIDS, and TB programs
including in the 15 focus countries and the multilateral efforts
through the Global Fund to Fight HIV/AIDS, TB and Malaria.
I am proud that the United States is doing more than its share in
helping to eradicate malaria, which is still too often an unnecessarily
fatal disease in too many parts of the world. The resolution funds the
Agency for International Development's Malaria programs in the amount
of $248 million, an increase of $149 million. This will allow U.S. AID
to expand its bilateral global malaria initiative activities from the
current 3 countries to 7. Country programs expand access to long-
lasting insecticide treated bed nets, promote and support effective
malaria treatment through the use of proven combination therapies; and
increase prevention efforts targeted to pregnant women.
Moratorium on Directed Spending Projects
Mr. Speaker, the continuing resolution explicitly eliminates directed
spending projects (``earmarks'') for Fiscal Year 2007 and retains the
moratorium on earmarking in place until a reformed process was put in
place. Unfortunately, many worthy earmarks are not funded
[[Page H1102]]
including the Boys and Girls Clubs, America's Promise, and the Thousand
Points of Light Foundation. I know many of my colleagues are
disappointed that the budgetary mismanagement by the Republican-
controlled 109th Congress necessitated this draconian measure. In spite
of this prohibition I will fight to secure funding for the TSU Lab
School and other projects.
But I take some consolation in Chairman Obey's assurance that
earmarks included in this year's appropriations bills will be eligible
for consideration in the 2008 process, subject to new standards for
transparency and accountability and that the Committee and leadership
will work to restore an accountable, above-board, transparent process
for funding decisions and put an end to the abuses that have harmed the
credibility of Congress.
Although the resolution eliminates earmarks for the current fiscal
year, I note Mr. Speaker, that the resolution will, however, continue
to help State and local governments meet the needs of their communities
by providing funding for grants through authorized discretionary and
formula programs including Teacher Incentive Grants, Corps of Engineers
programs, Military Construction, Department of Energy science programs,
Agricultural Research Service operations, and the USDA Cooperative
State Research, Education, and Extension Service.
Mr. Speaker, perhaps the most compelling reason for supporting H.
Res. 20 is that stated by Chairmen Obey and Byrd in their Joint
Statement of December 13, with which I close:
There is no good way out of the fiscal chaos left behind by
the outgoing Congress. Indeed, this joint resolution provides
the Administration far too much latitude in spending the
people's money. But that is a temporary price that we will
pay in order to give the President's new budget the attention
and oversight it deserves and requires, and so that we can
begin work right away at putting the people's priorities
front and center. We, in the new Congress, have a
responsibility to build the foundation for a better future.
We cannot begin that work until we fix the problems left
behind by the Republican Congress. So, we must turn the page
on the Republican failures and work together in the best
interests of the American people.
Mr. Speaker, I urge all members to support H.J. Res. 20 so we can
move forward and attend to real and pressing needs of the American
people.
Ms. LEE. Mr. Speaker, I rise in support of the continuing resolution.
Today we are in this colossal mess because last year's Republican
Congress failed to do its job.
Instead of passing the necessary spending bills to fund our
Government, Republicans decided they would rather pass the buck.
Instead of owning up to their failure today, Republicans are crying
foul! What hypocrisy Mr. Speaker!
Under Republican rule we have seen our country's finances literally
flushed down the toilet. Our Nation's debt grew by over $3 trillion
thanks to the Republicans. They passed massive tax cuts for the ultra
rich. They got rid of common sense pay-as-you-go rules. And they
started a completely unnecessary war in Iraq, whose true cost of nearly
$450 billion, they have tried to hide from taxpayers.
They had their chance to try and make amends last year, but they
failed to act.
Today Democrats are picking up the pieces and leading our country in
a new, fiscally responsible, direction.
This CR eliminates all earmarks, suspends the Congressional pay raise
and provides critical increases to a number of important programs this
year.
In particular, I want to thank Chairman Obey and my colleagues on the
appropriations committee for providing over $4.7 billion for our global
AIDS, tuberculosis, and malaria programs in FY07. This money will
ensure the continued scale-up of these programs and will provide
lifesaving anti-retroviral therapy to another 350,000 people this year.
I am also very pleased that the Department of Housing and Urban
Development (HUD) will receive an increase of $300 million for its
public housing operating fund. This money will help the Oakland Housing
Authority in my district to keep our public housing units open so that
we can provide stable housing to thousands of low-income individuals
and families who are in need.
Additionally the $1.4 billion increase for Section 8 housing programs
and the change in formula will provide housing assistance for a quarter
of a million people and help California get its fair share of funding
to reflect rising rental costs in our state.
Although not perfect, today's CR sends a very powerful message that
the Democratic Congress is strongly committed to helping those who are
most vulnerable in a fiscally responsible manner.
Although we have still got a long ways to go to re-order our Nation's
priorities, this CR is the first step. I urge my colleagues to support
it.
Mr. TERRY. Mr. Speaker, I rise in strong opposition to the process
used by the majority party to write and debate the bill under
consideration today.
Ranking minority members were not consulted on this legislation or
provided an opportunity for input. In fact, most of the majority
party's own members had no input in this process. Appropriations
Committee Chairman David Obey instead directed his staff members to
write major budget legislation behind closed doors without involving
elected Members of Congress. It appears staff members of Senate
Appropriations Committee Chairman Bob Byrd conducted negotiations on
behalf of the Senate.
As reported in CongressDaily AM today, ``most of the negotiations
were conducted by staff.'' This information came from Chairman Obey,
who also said that Members of Congress only became involved in the
negotiations ``when matters became difficult.'' Let me repeat that:
Unelected congressional staff for Chairmen Obey and Byrd conducted
negotiations on 9 of 11 major spending bills that make up the annual
budget of the United States Government.
Why do we have an Appropriations Committee if the committee members
have no input in the appropriations process? I propose the next
legislation this Congress should debate is a bill to dissolve the House
Appropriations Committee. It is clearly unnecessary since major budget
negotiations can be conducted by staff instead of elected Members.
Apparently, the Appropriations Committee consists entirely of Chairman
Obey, who can single-handedly dictate the legislative process and
assign his staff to take the place of elected Members of Congress.
Handing responsibilities for major budget negotiations to
congressional staff for Chairmen Obey and Byrd is an abdication of
responsibility. It also sets the stage for corruption on many levels.
These staff-level negotiations were unknown to the public and the
majority of elected Members. I am deeply concerned that damage and
corruption to our laws will occur if Members of Congress are not
thoroughly involved in the creation of legislation and knowledgable
about the contents of bills brought to a vote.
In addition, allowing only 1 hour of debate and no opportunity for
amendments on major $463.5 billion legislation that Members had only 1
day to review is further evidence of the majority party's lack of
consideration for our system of government and the responsibilities of
elected Members. I also wish Congress had completed the budget process
last year, but this fact does not excuse the closed process used to
write H.J. Res. 20 this week.
I sincerely hope the majority party will begin including elected
Members of Congress in the process of lawmaking, as the Constitution
intended, and as the American people rightly expect. Our system of
government of the people, for the people, and by the people depends
upon our ability to work together to accomplish the business of the
American people. I urge my colleagues from both sides of the aisle to
join me in calling for a return to the regular committee process and
more fair and open debate of legislation with opportunities to offer
amendments.
Mr. HOLT. Mr. Speaker, I rise in reluctant support of H.J. Res. 20
the Continuing Resolution for FY 2007. Mr. Speaker, this is not the
bill that I or any of my colleagues wish we were voting on today. This
bill eliminates all earmarks, some for worthy projects like job
training, community-based healthcare, and boys and girls clubs. I had
hoped that each of the eleven FY 07 appropriations bills would have
passed separately into law last year, with proper funding increases to
ensure that we are investing for the future. Unfortunately, the last
Congress only passed two.
The last Congress failed at this, and we are left now left to pass a
continuing resolution for the rest of FY07 without the detailed fine-
tuning and funding increases the bills normally contain. The Republican
failures on the budget created the worst budget mess since the
Government shut down in 1996. It is no wonder that the debt has
increased by more than $3 trillion since Republicans took control of
the Government.
The funding of scientific research is crucial to our competitiveness,
economic well-being, and quality of life. Flat funding in the context
of inflation is difficult for everyone, but it is particularly damaging
to scientific enterprise. Scientific budget items must change
dramatically each year as large projects with short lives are
constructed, go into operation, and are replaced. This year would be a
particularly bad time for flat funding in the sciences. We have new
international commitments to energy research and new national projects
that have completed construction and require operating budgets. We also
have unprecedented and much-needed consensus to increase funding in the
sciences to keep pace with our international peers. To this end, wrote
with two others letters to the Appropriations Committee raising
concerns about the impact of flat funding on the Department of Energy's
Office of
[[Page H1103]]
Science and on the National Science Foundation. These letters were
signed by a sizeable fraction of the House, and I am pleased that the
Appropriations Committee has addressed this matter, fully for the NSF
and appreciably for the DOE Office of Science. I look forward to
increased funding for research at NSF and for fusion energy in the FY
08 appropriations.
I would like to point out a few positive points in the bill. This
bill provides for a $3.6 billion increase over last year's level for VA
healthcare funding. I'm pleased that this increase will make it
possible for us to provide services for an additional 325,000 patients
in the VA medical system, and to meet rising healthcare costs as have
more returning veterans than any time since the Vietnam era. I'm also
pleased that the bill includes some $4 billion for our housing program
for military families. These gains are important, but we have much more
to do. As we begin looking at funding priorities for fiscal year 2008
and beyond, I believe it is imperative that the Congress finally meet
America's obligation to provide for full funding of our veterans'
health care system. VA hospital and clinic administrators cannot
provide consistent, quality services and proper continuity of care over
time unless they know how much money they have to work with. The
existing discretionary appropriations process for VA healthcare is not
working, and only a move to mandatory funding can solve this chronic
problem. I look forward to voting for such a proposal this year.
The bill raises the maximum Pell grant award from $4,050 to $4,310.
This increase, the first in 4 years, recognizes the essential role of
the Pell grant program in improving access to higher education and as a
critical component in comprehensive efforts to address college
affordability. For years under Republican leadership, Congress all but
ignored the growing college cost crisis that was preventing many
qualified students from going to college. Now, in just the first month
of this new Democratic Congress, the House has already voted
overwhelmingly to cut interest rates on need-based Federal student
loans. And we have another major step towards putting a college
education within reach of every qualified student by boosting the Pell
grant scholarship by $260.
The bill also increases Title I school funding by $125 million,
bringing total funding from $12.7 to $12.8 billion. The proposed
increase would reverse the decline in Title I funding since 2005 and
would allow additional reading and math services for some 38,000
eligible children. I also support the proposed $125 million for the
Title I school improvement fund. These funds, if passed would be
targeted to the 6,700 schools designated as needing improvement under
No Child Left Behind, thereby allowing them to implement professional
development initiatives, tutoring programs, and other improvements
designed to raise student achievement.
The bill also spends $4.5 billion, an increase of $1.3 billion, to
expand efforts to combat HIV/AIDS and TB programs, including in the 15
focus countries and the multilateral efforts through the Global Fund to
Fight HIV/AIDS, TB, and Malaria. The bill also spends $248 million, an
increase of $149 million, to allow the Agency to expand its bilateral
global malaria initiative activities from the current three countries
to seven.
The chairman deserves ones thanks for negotiating a bill better than
a traditional continuing resolution, which would have jeopardized
American national security, resulted in thousands of layoffs, and cut
off healthcare for members of the U.S. Armed Forces and veterans. For
example, the Food Safety and Inspection Service would have faced a
month of furloughs, resulting in the closure of 6,000 meat processing
plants; the federal judiciary would have had to fire 2,500 workers; and
the Princeton Plasma Physics Lab and other research facilities would
have had to stop projects and layoff scientists. I ask my colleagues to
pass this bill so that we can begin the FY 08 appropriations and make
more important investments in our future.
Mr. STARK. Mr. Speaker, I rise today in support of cleaning up the
Republicans' mess. The previous Congress failed to pass 9 of 11
appropriations bills, creating the worst budget mess since the
Government shut down in 1996.
Today's resolution is far from perfect. But while adhering to the
spending limit in the Republican budget, it provides significant
funding increases to several important programs.
First, the continuing resolution for fiscal year 2007 provides
housing assistance to 227,000 people through a $1.4 billion increase
for section 8 housing programs. Second, it finances construction of
hundreds of new community health centers and improvements to existing
facilities. Third, today's bill increases funding for Head Start by
$104 million to help prevent a drop in enrollments. Fourth, it raises
the maximum Pell grant by $260, which will help more than 5.3 million
students afford college.
It's time to get to work on the people's business. Cleaning up a mess
is never fun, but because Republicans failed to take ``personal
responsibility'' for this year's budget, it is necessary. I urge my
colleagues to vote ``yes.''
Mr. ORTIZ. Mr. Speaker, today is a day when being in the majority is
about paying for the very long list of mistakes from the last
(Republican) Congress that simply refused to pay the bills.
Well, this Congress will not proceed down that road. Before we can
begin the regular funding process, we have to pay the bills the last
Congress ran up, then did not pay. That's where we are today. And it is
a position none of us are happy about.
There is a long list of items that should be in this CR that would
have benefited the people in my south Texas Congressional district, but
since the previous Congress could not be bothered to pay the bills, we
will have to begin again to put these in our appropriations bills this
year.
Among the many items that will now go unfunded is an improvement to
help speed up repair of helicopters coming home from and going back to
Iraq and Afghanistan at the Corpus Christi Army Depot.
The items that this CR is not funding are not the wasteful spending
that characterized the last several Congresses. The items we are
cutting here are important national priorities for the health,
education and well being of our children and the less fortunate among
us, as well as defense priorities for the Nation.
Just this morning, I chaired my first Readiness Subcommittee
hearing--a joint hearing with Tactical Air and Land Subcommittee--where
we heard time and time again about how much more help the depots needed
to repair the equipment our soldiers in the field need so very much.
Not including the funding for helicopter repair at CCAD is part of
the price we--as a nation--are paying for the disregard the previous
Congress showed for the readiness of our troops, and for the
disposition of the job Congress is elected to do.
Mr. UDALL of Colorado. Mr. Speaker, there are many things that can be
said against this continuing resolution, as the House has heard during
today's debate. But after all those things have been said, I am
convinced the only responsible choice is to vote for it--and I will do
so.
In fact, it was the failure of responsibility on the part of last
year's Republican leadership in Congress that brought us to where we
find ourselves today. If they had done their job of developing and
enacting the legislation to fund the essential functions of government,
it would not be necessary for us to be acting now to make up for their
failures.
In fairness, much of the blame rests with the Republican-led Senate.
While the House last year did pass all but one of the regular
appropriations bills, only two of those bills ever received a final
vote in the other body--and only those two were enacted into law.
But even here in the House, the Republican leadership never even
brought to the floor the bill to fund the Departments of Labor and
Health and Human Services--not before the election, evidently because
they did not want to have to discuss it during their campaigns, but not
even in the lame-duck session last year.
Given the situation the resulted from their predecessors' failure,
Chairman Obey and his colleagues on the Appropriations Committee
decided that the best way to proceed was to bring forward this long-
term continuing resolution, intended to complete action on
appropriations for the remainder of this fiscal year, and then to begin
work on the appropriations bills for the fiscal year that lies ahead.
I support that decision, and I will support this continuing
resolution.
There are parts of it that I think fall short of what should be done
in a number of areas. But there are other parts that I strongly
support, including the provision that withholds any increase in the pay
of Members of Congress--something that I think is overdue.
More than a year ago--in October of 2005--I urged the House's
conferees to agree to a Senate amendment to the fiscal year 2006
appropriations bill that would have withheld a cost of living raise for
Members of Congress. I regret that my plea was in vain, because I think
we should be prepared to do our part when our country is at war, our
homeland security must be improved, and the federal budget remains deep
in deficit.
Withholding a congressional pay raise will make only a small change
in the budget because the amount involved is minor compared with other
expenditures. However, I think it is an appropriate first step for
Members of Congress to forego this increase in our pay, and I am glad
this legislation will have that effect.
I also am very pleased that the resolution includes $300 million in
additional funding for the Department of Energy's Energy Efficiency and
Renewable Energy, EERE, programs. My colleague Representative
Perlmutter and I worked hard to get this funding included in the
legislation, and I intend to work closely with
[[Page H1104]]
our colleagues in Congress and with the Department of Energy to ensure
that the research programs carried out at National Renewable Energy
Laboratory, NREL, in Colorado benefit from a good deal of those funds.
Despite the importance of NREL's work, flat or decreased funding for
NREL in recent years--coupled with earmarks and inflationary cost
increases--has effectively reduced the funding for renewable energy
research, which has led to a continuing struggle for needed resources
and great instability at the lab. This in turn has severely affected
the lab's ability to develop new technologies and continue the United
States' leadership in renewable energy technologies. The boost for EERE
funding in this bill could go a long way toward helping NREL regain its
critical momentum.
The parts of the legislation dealing with defense and national
security include increased funding for defense health programs, for
basic allowance for housing, and for two important Department of Energy
nonproliferation programs--the International Nuclear Material
Protection and Cooperation program, which secures weapons-grade nuclear
materials in the former Soviet States, and the Global Threat Reduction
Initiative, which secures high-risk nuclear material around the world.
It also includes $2.5 billion for implementation of a round of
military base closures authorized in 2005. While the $2.5 billion is an
increase from the funding provided for fiscal year 2006, it will still
leaves us $3.1 billion short of meeting our Base Realignment and
Closure, BRAC, commitments and nearly $1 billion short of the funds
needed for military construction projects. Since the Army links its
military construction and troop movement plans to BRAC implementation,
this shortfall could have broad impacts on the rotation and return of
troops and the building of new brigades.
It has been indicated that additional needs for BRAC and military
housing will be addressed in the supplemental war spending bill we will
soon consider in Congress. I hope that will be the case, and will work
to achieve that result as well as to ensure that the Defense Department
takes into account Colorado priorities as it makes the hard choices
about which military construction projects to fund.
I also am pleased that Chairman Obey and his colleagues recognized
the importance of science programs across different agencies, allowing
for increases at the Department of Energy's Office of Science, the
National Science Foundation, and the National Institute of Standards
and Technology, NIST.
However, I am greatly concerned about the impact this resolution
could have on the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration,
NOAA.
In my district, NOAA operates the Earth System Research Laboratory,
which has the largest concentration of NOAA research staff in the
Nation--300--as well as the largest concentration of university staff
funded by NOAA research, for a total of 1,000 Federal and contract
employees. NOAA's programs in Boulder include the Space Environment
Center, which provides essential space weather forecasting services;
the NOAA Profiler Network, which gathers key weather information for a
range of other agencies, including the Departments of Defense and
Transportation; and the National Geophysical Data Center, the world's
largest archive of geophysical data on observations of earth from
space.
Funding for NOAA under previous continuing-resolution levels saw
significant decreases, so I am pleased that overall the agency will see
a return to the funding levels provided for fiscal year 2006. However,
it is unclear how this will be distributed, and so there is a
possibility that many important programs will not be adequately funded.
I believe that we will have to work to address these issues when we
consider the appropriation bills for fiscal year 2008.
NIST also has a significant presence in Colorado. The NIST facilities
at Boulder have contributed to great scientific advances, but these
facilities are now over fifty years old and have not been well
maintained. Many environmental factors such as the humidity and
vibrations from traffic can affect the quality of research performed in
the NIST labs. Scientists have difficulty conducting cutting edge
research in labs that have leaking roofs. NIST has included building
renovations as a priority in past budgets, yet the final budgets have
included so many earmarks that the agency's needs have not been met.
The absence of similar earmarks from this resolution means that NIST
may finally be able to address some of its most dire needs, including
renovations of the Boulder facilities. I will work to ensure that much
of the nearly $60 million in the NIST construction budget will be
dedicated to renovating these facilities.
The appropriators had many tough choices to make with regards to
funding the National Aeronautics and Space Administration, NASA.
Balancing the needs of the different NASA programs is critical and I
appreciate that the appropriators realized that congressional intent
needs to be clear and specific to ensure that no one program is
completely devastated by funding cuts. While I am pleased that the
decline in aeronautics research funding will be halted, I am also
concerned about the cuts to the science and exploration programs, as
well as to the space operations. It is not yet clear how NASA will
accommodate these cuts. NASA is important to the Nation, and I will
continue to push for adequate funding from my position as chairman of
the Space and Aeronautics Subcommittee of the House Science and
Technology Committee.
Education is vital to our country's youth and our economic future and
I am pleased that the appropriators have provided several important
programs with funding increases that will help keep our country strong.
These include increases above the fiscal 2006 funding levels for Pell
Grants, the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act, IDEA, and Head
Start. Furthermore, the appropriators made a step in the right
direction by increasing funding in Title I of the No Child Left Behind
Act, NCLB.
And I am pleased that by this resolution the Federal-aid highway
program, in the Federal Highway Administration, is fully funded at the
level guaranteed in the Safe, Accountable Flexible, Efficient
Transportation Equity Act: A Legacy for Users, SAFETEA-LU, with an
obligation limitation of $39.1 billion for fiscal 2007, $3.5 billion
over the fiscal 2006 enacted level.
So, in conclusion, Mr. Speaker, I think Chairman Obey and his
colleagues deserve the thanks of the House for the work they have done
to clear away the rubble left by the Republican leadership last year
and to replace it with a firm foundation on which to build in the
future. Adoption of this resolution will write an end to last year's
sorry story and take the first step on a better, more responsible
approach to carrying out our duties as legislators. I urge approval of
the joint resolution.
Mr. LEVIN. Mr. Speaker, I rise in support of the resolution before
the House.
Few will take any great satisfaction with the manner in which the
Congress is at last completing the budget process for 2007. This work
was supposed to have been completed 4 months ago. It is important for
everyone to understand how we got to this point and why we are forced
to take the extraordinary step of approving a continuing resolution to
fund nearly every domestic program for the balance of this fiscal year.
We are here today because the Republican majority that controlled the
House last year failed to do its work. Last May, they voted for a
budget resolution that was so unrealistic that not even they could find
a way to live within it. As a direct result after 8 months, the former
majority was able to complete action on just 2 of the 11 regular
appropriations bills. Then, in early December, the outgoing leaders of
the House and Senate decided to punt on the remaining funding bills,
pass a stopgap spending bill to keep the Government operating through
February 15, adjourn the Congress, and leave town.
So now it is up to the new Congress to clean up this budgetary mess
as best we can, and that's what the bill before the House does. It is
an imperfect solution. There are any number of programs that deserve a
lot more funding than we are able to give them here today. We are still
constrained by the overall funding levels adopted in last year's budget
resolution, a budget that not a single Democrat voted for. At the same
time, I am glad that the measure we are considering today manages to
increase funding in a number of priority areas, especially veterans
health care, medical care for U.S. troops wounded in Iraq and
Afghanistan, the Federal highway program, medical research at the
National Institutes of Health as well as some key education programs. I
also applaud the decision to put a moratorium on Members' earmarks
until a reformed process is put in place to provide an accountable and
transparent process for funding these projects.
Even so, some of my colleagues on the other side of the aisle have
gotten up to complain that we should have done better. They want less
spending in some areas and more spending in others. After sitting on
their hands for 8 months last year, they now object to the procedure
we're using to clean up the mess they made. It is unfortunate that the
people who are complaining the loudest today were unwilling to convince
their own leadership to make these spending decisions last year by
passing the individual funding bills on time and getting them to the
President for his signature.
The reality is that we are already 4 months into fiscal year 2007.
There isn't time to spend another month or two debating spending bills
that should have been completed last September. The agencies and the
States have waited long enough for Congress to act, and the President
is submitting his 2008 budget request to us next week. It's time for
Congress to complete this work.
Mr. ETHERIDGE. Mr. Speaker, I rise in reluctant support of House
Joint Resolution 20 to fund the essential services of the Federal
Government through September 20 of this year.
On November 7, the American people voted to fire the former
Republican majority for gross
[[Page H1105]]
mismanagement of the Nation's finances and woeful neglect of the
priorities of the American people. This imperfect legislation is
necessary to clean up the mess the former majority left behind.
Mr. Speaker, the former Republican majority passed only 2 of the 11
bills necessary to fund the discretionary accounts of the Federal
Government. Failing to pass their obligatory legislation by October 1,
2006, the former majority passed a stopgap measure to keep the
Government functioning when they adjourned the 109th Congress. Our new
Democratic majority was left with the unfinished business of the fiscal
year 2007 appropriations legislation. Today marks the 123rd day since
the start of fiscal year 2007, and the President's 2008 budget request
is scheduled to be delivered to this Congress on Monday. Now is the
time to finish last year's work, so we can move on to the essential
work at hand to deliver a new direction for the American people.
Although I am disappointed that funding priorities for our districts
were left out of this bill, it is important to note several important
improvements this bill makes over previous year's appropriations. For
example, H.J. Res. 20 will raise the maximum Pell grant award from
$4,050 to $4,310, the first increase in 4 years of this critical effort
to make college more affordable for working families. The bill
increases special education funding under the Individuals with
Disabilities Education Act, IDEA, by $200 million. This Continuing
Resolution will increase low-income public schools' Title I funding by
$125 million and thereby reverse the decline in Title I education
funding. Even with these increases, Federal investment in education
continues to lag far behind the levels needed to create a first-class
school system for the 21st century, and I look forward to working to
address these shortfalls in the fiscal year 2008 appropriations
legislation.
I am concerned about the military construction projects left out of
this legislation, and I want Congress to work on a bipartisan basis to
address this problem in the fiscal year 2007 supplemental
appropriations legislation. This bill includes an important increase of
$3.6 billion for veterans health care to meet the needs of an
additional 325,000 patients, and it increases funding for health care
services at the Department of Defense by $1.2 billion, including
treating soldiers wounded in action in Iraq and Afghanistan. The CR
also increases funding for the basic allowance for military housing by
$500 million. Finally, the bill increases funding for intelligence
analysts at the FBI that are critical to protect the American people
from the terrorist threat as well as increasing funding for COPS local
law enforcement.
Mr. Speaker, as a new member of the House Budget Committee, I have
learned over the past several weeks that the budget mess created by the
former majority is far worse than the American people know. It will
take a lot of hard work to restore order to our Nation's books. H.J.
Res. 20 is the first necessary if unpleasant step in that vital effort.
I urge my colleagues to join me in voting for this legislation.
Mr. DAVIS of Kentucky. Mr. Speaker, I rise today to express my
opposition to the Democrats' omnibus spending bill. The text of this
legislation that would spend more than $463.5 billion in taxpayer
dollars was first distributed to the minority less than 48 hours ago
and will be debated for only one hour. In October the Democrats
promised the American people increased transparency and accountability,
but apparently, these promises are hard to keep in January.
While there are billions of dollars being spent without oversight or
accountability, the omnibus also includes a provision that will alter
the formula for distributing Section 8 housing funds. The current
formula bases funding on an average of funding levels for May, June and
July of 2004 with adjustments for inflation.
The altered formula contained in the omnibus bill will base funding
levels on the previous twelve months funding, accounting for inflation.
The formula change will cut significant amounts of funding for more
than half of our nation's public housing authorities.
The formula change would result in a decrease in funding for three of
the four major public housing authorities in my District. The Covington
Housing Authority would lose $197,321, the Ashland Public Housing
Authority would lose $75,578, and the Maysville Housing Authority would
see a loss of $71,274, which is 23.4 percent of its operating budget.
These housing authorities provide critical services to my constituents
and an unexpected funding cut like this will only worsen the already
poorly funded public housing system.
Changing the formula for Section 8 is a topic that deserves debate,
but the formula included in the Democrats' omnibus spending bill has
yet to see the light of day in either the House Financial Services
Committee or, until now, on the House floor. Changing the formula
midway through the year without debate or discussion is an unwise move
and would wreak havoc on our public housing system.
Contrary to claims made by Democratic leaders, it has been discovered
that this bill contains numerous hidden earmarks that Democrats
apparently hoped to ram through the House without debate. It is in the
interest of the American people that we ask our colleagues across the
aisle what else is buried in the 135 pages of this bill that will harm
real people in our districts without ever having been debated in this
House?
Mr. STEARNS. Mr. Speaker, this omnibus appropriations bill we
consider on the floor today is not a typical Continuing Resolution, but
changes funding levels and re-prioritizes projects from prior years.
This CR is the longest in recent history. Most of them are 1-2 pages.
This is 137 pages. Some of these changes are controversial as well as
complicated, and I feel that the whole House would have benefited from
a thorough appraisal of these proposals, a vigorous committee process,
so that all Members would have been fully apprised of the nuances and
we could pass a wellthought out, carefully crafted omnibus spending
bill. However, I was pleased that the crafters of this bill saw fit to
include funding levels for Veterans' Affairs that come close to what
the House Republicans passed in the last Congress, and funding levels
close to the Administration's request. However, they should be higher.
I do lament that the priorities of the current leadership to continue
funding ineffective and wasteful programs have limited the amount of
available funds that could improve the quality of life for our brave
veterans even more.
For example, this bill does not eliminate 28 earmarks totaling $70
million, including the famed $50 million Rainforest in Iowa project.
That $50 million could instead have been allocated to improving
adaptive housing for disabled veterans. This bill also funds assistance
to Independent States of the former Soviet Union at a level that is $11
million above the Administration's request. Had this bill been
considered in Committees, we may have been able to determine that this
$11 million excess may be better spent on rehabilitation programs for
blind veterans. Finally, instead of allocating $316 million for
``Corporation for National and Community Service, Domestic Volunteer
Service Programs,'' which includes funds to pay people to volunteer in
the Americorps program. We could have used some of that money to
increase the medical care for spinal cord injured veterans, or
increasing benefits for survivors of service members who have
sacrificed and given their lives in this Global War on Terror,
defending the safety and freedom enjoyed by all of us back here in the
States. This CR also breaks the Nation's obligation to provide soldiers
and families adequate quality of life--affects the all volunteer force
and unravels the Army's synchronized stationing and BRAC plan.
Mr. OBERSTAR. Mr. Speaker, today I rise in support of H.J. Res. 20,
the Revised Continuing Appropriations Resolution for Fiscal Year (FY)
2007. I commend Chairman Obey and our House Leadership for bringing
this Joint Resolution to the floor. While a Resolution such as this is
not the ideal way to fund Government programs, the failure of the last
Congress to complete its work left us with no viable alternative. In a
very limited amount of time, the Appropriations Committee has done
yeoman's work to bring the FY 2007 appropriations cycle to a close in
the Resolution that is before us today.
Many difficult choices had to be made in this Joint Resolution. I am
pleased that one of those choices was to fund highway, transit, and
highway safety programs at the levels guaranteed by the Safe,
Accountable, Flexible, Efficient Transportation Equity Act: A Legacy
for Users (SAFETEA-LU). Under H.J. Res. 20, highway programs will be
funded at $38.962 billion, an increase of $3.411 billion over FY 2006
enacted levels; transit programs will be funded at $8.975 billion, an
increase of $470 million over FY 2006; motor carrier safety programs
will be funded at $520.5 million, an increase of $30 million over FY
2006; and highway safety programs will be funded at $821 million, an
increase of $14 million over FY 2006.
These programs are funded by highway user revenues that have been
deposited into the Highway Trust Fund, where they are held in trust for
the purpose of meeting our surface transportation infrastructure needs.
These needs are reaching crisis proportions. Congestion has worsened
dramatically in recent years. In 2003, traffic congestion cost
motorists $63.1 billion in terms of wasted time and fuel.
In addition to meeting our infrastructure investment needs, the
highway and transit funding levels set by this Joint Resolution will
create an additional 192,000 family-wage construction jobs.
I would also like to mention one aviation-related matter. Under the
previous Continuing Resolution, there was a technical anomaly that had
the effect of reducing the amount of Airport Improvement Program
contract authority
[[Page H1106]]
well below the intended program level. I am pleased that H.J. Res. 20
corrects this anomaly, and further, ensures that the full amount of
contract authority that is authorized for the Airport Improvement
Program in FY 2007 remains available. This will set the stage for a
successful reauthorization of Federal aviation programs later this
year, and I thank the Appropriations Committee for their assistance in
this matter.
All too often, long-term investments in our nation's infrastructure
are short-changed in the face of the more immediate need to fund day-
to-day operations. This Joint Resolution avoids such a short-sighted
approach. Instead, it takes a longer-term view and recognizes the far-
reaching effects transportation infrastructure investments have on our
nation's economy, our competitiveness in the world marketplace, and the
quality of life in our communities. Again, I applaud Chairman Obey and
House Leadership for recognizing the value of fully funding highway and
transit programs, and I urge my colleagues to support the Joint
Resolution.
COMPARISON OF DISTRIBUTION OF FY 2007 HIGHWAY FUNDING UNDER H.J. RES. 20 (SAFETEA-LU LEVELS) AND A FREEZE AT FY
2006 ENACTED FUNDING LEVELS*
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Estimated FY 2007 Estimated FY 2007 Increase in highway
State based on FY 2006 based on H. J. Res. funds under H. J. Job gains
enacted level 20 Res. 20
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Alabama.......................... 548,699,954 600,869,788 52,169,834 2,478
Alaska........................... 250,266,768 270,731,918 20,465,150 972
Arizona.......................... 538,528,974 593,277,405 54,748,431 2,601
Arkansas......................... 347,184,100 381,949,909 34,765,809 1,651
California....................... 2,408,038,182 2,680,526,468 272,488,286 12,943
Colorado......................... 360,141,090 400,663,892 40,522,802 1,925
Connecticut...................... 366,382,281 402,325,874 35,943,593 1,707
Delaware......................... 109,353,384 121,131,724 11,778,340 559
District of Columbia............. 111,043,293 123,804,359 12,761,066 606
Florida.......................... 1,406,290,504 1,544,927,499 138,636,995 6,585
Georgia.......................... 969,691,811 1,067,010,791 97,318,980 4,623
Hawaii........................... 115,267,040 127,596,268 12,329,228 586
Idaho............................ 203,333,283 222,829,360 19,496,077 926
Illinois......................... 910,387,767 1,010,811,302 100,423,535 4,770
Indiana.......................... 704,288,252 775,353,318 71,065,066 3,376
Iowa............................. 295,143,803 330,589,700 35,445,897 1,684
Kansas........................... 278,297,493 309,772,956 31,475,463 1,495
Kentucky......................... 472,046,550 520,949,132 48,902,582 2,323
Louisiana........................ 428,615,786 474,862,364 46,246,578 2,197
Maine............................ 122,527,132 136,355,671 13,828,539 657
Maryland......................... 441,365,185 490,032,577 48,667,392 2,312
Massachusetts.................... 451,909,116 501,926,732 50,017,616 2,376
Michigan......................... 821,004,265 909,761,902 88,757,637 4,216
Minnesota........................ 437,257,769 485,442,279 48,184,510 2,289
Mississippi...................... 329,837,415 367,059,847 37,222,432 1,768
Missouri......................... 645,399,673 711,268,494 65,868,821 3,129
Montana.......................... 262,635,121 287,386,573 24,751,452 1,176
Nebraska......................... 201,576,731 223,867,736 22,291,005 1,059
Nevada........................... 189,509,480 210,350,302 20,840,822 990
New Hampshire.................... 124,655,305 137,769,576 13,114,271 623
New Jersey....................... 742,676,203 822,265,394 79,589,191 3,780
New Mexico....................... 263,313,362 290,194,749 26,881,387 1,277
New York......................... 1,235,368,254 1,366,155,757 130,787,503 6,212
North Carolina................... 790,657,686 872,183,722 81,526,036 3,872
North Dakota..................... 170,820,553 189,098,718 18,278,165 868
Ohio............................. 1,003,336,242 1,109,710,100 106,373,858 5,053
Oklahoma......................... 417,430,679 459,904,524 42,473,845 2,018
Oregon........................... 312,842,891 347,410,836 34,567,945 1,642
Pennsylvania..................... 1,231,575,368 1,357,719,130 126,143,762 5,992
Rhode Island..................... 138,243,095 154,154,462 15,911,367 756
South Carolina................... 463,551,501 511,384,433 47,832,932 2,272
South Dakota..................... 183,777,294 202,845,805 19,068,511 906
Tennessee........................ 608,526,292 672,761,834 64,235,542 3,051
Texas............................ 2,336,793,323 2,574,558,747 237,765,424 11,294
Utah............................. 198,304,703 220,645,255 22,340,552 1,061
Vermont.......................... 116,195,870 129,379,891 13,184,021 626
Virginia......................... 752,517,077 830,852,486 78,335,409 3,721
Washington....................... 464,963,105 519,595,013 54,631,908 2,595
West Virginia.................... 297,110,356 325,592,845 28,482,489 1,353
Wisconsin........................ 535,232,750 586,036,437 50,803,687 2,413
Wyoming.......................... 187,339,698 207,256,184 19,916,486 946
State Total.................. 27,301,253,809 30,170,912,038 2,869,658,229 136,309
Allocated Programs............... 8,249,534,225 8,794,320,215 544,785,990 25,877
Grand Total.............. 35,550,788,034 38,965,232,253 3,414,444,219 162,186
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
*Prepared by Transportation Committee Staff based on information provided by the Federal Highway Administration
(FHWA).
Pursuant to FHWA estimates, the table assumes that $1 billion of federal highway program investment creates or
sustains 47,500 jobs.
COMPARISON OF DISTRIBUTION OF FY 2007 TRANSIT FUNDING UNDER H.J. RES. 20 (SAFETEA-LU LEVELS) AND A FREEZE AT FY
2006 ENACTED FUNDING LEVELS*
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Estimated FY 2007 Estimated FY 2007 Increase in transit
State based on FY 2006 based on H.J. Res. funds under H.J.
enacted level 20 Res. 20
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Alabama.......................................... 34,196,079 35,917,557 1,721,478
Alaska........................................... 40,664,169 43,684,864 3,020,695
American Samoa................................... 363,526 378,709 15,183
Arizona.......................................... 70,874,803 74,566,555 3,691,752
Arkansas......................................... 20,595,782 21,624,106 1,028,325
California....................................... 860,977,967 909,011,398 48,033,431
Colorado......................................... 68,133,405 71,734,965 3,601,560
Connecticut...................................... 111,473,570 116,161,350 4,687,780
Delaware......................................... 12,343,553 12,964,684 621,131
District of Columbia............................. 133,885,672 143,436,741 9,551,069
Florida.......................................... 243,852,407 257,204,462 13,352,054
Georgia.......................................... 122,588,444 129,936,520 7,348,076
Guam............................................. 826,259 860,325 34,067
Hawaii........................................... 29,830,942 31,400,084 1,569,142
Idaho............................................ 12,817,986 13,451,401 633,415
Illinois......................................... 398,577,515 416,783,541 18,206,026
Indiana.......................................... 66,046,492 69,315,270 3,268,778
Iowa............................................. 25,968,993 27,268,158 1,299,165
Kansas........................................... 21,426,288 22,494,657 1,068,369
Kentucky......................................... 34,144,499 35,861,830 1,717,331
Louisiana........................................ 48,410,251 50,782,933 2,372,682
Maine............................................ 10,575,926 11,097,740 521,814
Maryland......................................... 138,222,300 145,473,348 7,251,048
Massachusetts.................................... 254,271,639 266,324,153 12,052,514
Michigan......................................... 97,312,254 102,276,279 4,964,026
Minnesota........................................ 71,558,372 75,538,579 3,980,208
Mississippi...................................... 18,738,808 19,670,220 931,412
Missouri......................................... 61,239,190 64,470,702 3,231,511
Montana.......................................... 10,551,605 11,063,093 511,487
N. Mariana Islands............................... 947,400 992,767 45,367
Nebraska......................................... 15,919,675 16,710,183 790,507
[[Page H1107]]
Nevada........................................... 32,042,239 33,656,870 1,614,630
New Hampshire.................................... 10,102,458 10,578,619 476,161
New Jersey....................................... 400,436,239 419,100,009 18,663,771
New Mexico....................................... 19,119,184 20,069,956 950,771
New York......................................... 1,034,549,971 1,082,343,021 47,793,050
North Carolina................................... 71,964,676 75,614,146 3,649,470
North Dakota..................................... 7,931,785 8,318,217 386,432
Ohio............................................. 139,489,673 146,321,569 6,831,896
Oklahoma......................................... 27,609,464 28,993,943 1,384,479
Oregon........................................... 58,396,279 61,754,430 3,358,151
Pennsylvania..................................... 292,172,210 304,365,432 12,193,221
Puerto Rico...................................... 61,813,245 65,063,169 3,249,924
Rhode Island..................................... 20,017,356 21,037,377 1,020,021
South Carolina................................... 30,039,096 31,551,605 1,512,509
South Dakota..................................... 7,979,266 8,366,497 387,232
Tennessee........................................ 50,312,876 52,887,946 2,575,071
Texas............................................ 275,785,086 200,572,826 14,787,739
Utah............................................. 37,117,405 38,989,277 1,871,872
Vermont.......................................... 4,741,909 4,970,440 228,531
Virgin Islands................................... 1,075,588 1,124,292 48,704
Virginia......................................... 96,647,748 102,361,435 5,713,687
Washington....................................... 146,151,127 154,794,791 8,643,665
West Virginia.................................... 16,647,112 17,618,937 971,825
Wisconsin........................................ 58,738,414 61,751,045 3,012,631
Wyoming.......................................... 6,369,396 6,673,663 304,268
--------------------------------------------------------------
State Subtotal............................... 5,944,585,574 6,247,336,688 302,751,114
Oversight........................................ 42,456,256 44,626,313 2,170,057
Total........................................ 5,987,041,830 6,291,963,001 304,921,171
Tribal Transit Program........................... 7,920,000 10,000,000 2,080,000
National RTAP.................................... 1,152,360 1,212,000 59,640
Grand Total.................................. 5,996,114,190 6,303,175,001 307,060,811
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
*Amounts shown above include total formula apportionments for non-urbanized formula (sec. 5311), state planning,
metropolitan planning, elderly & disabled program (sec. 5310), new freedom, job access and reverse commute
(JARC), rural transportation assistance program (RTAP), fixed guideway modernization, and urbanized area
formula (sec. 5307) programs.
Mr. PEARCE. Mr. Speaker, I rise today in opposition to this massive
$463 billion dollar spending bill because it fails four critical tests:
the accountability test, the common sense test, the compassion test,
and most of all--the smell test.
Hatched behind close doors by the chairmen of the House and Senate
appropriations committees with no input from Members or their
constituents, H.J. Res. 20 levels a devastating blow against New
Mexicans and their communities. Our most vulnerable low-income
residents will pay the heaviest price.
As Deputy Ranking Member of the Housing and Community Opportunity
Subcommittee, I wish to point out that the Majority's arbitrary choices
are ripping nearly one million dollars away from the public housing
authorities in my district and the people they serve; including
$272,428 from the Las Cruces Housing Authority; $158,355 from the Dona
Ana Housing Authority; $30,461 from the Gallup Housing Authority;
$40,717 from the Truth or Consequences Housing Authority; $15,076 from
the Bernalillo Housing Authority, $43,596 from the Los Lunas Housing
Authority; and a combined total of $416,173 from the Region V and
Region II Housing Authorities.
A Section 8 voucher manager of one of my District's housing
authorities described these drastic cuts as comparable to losing an
entire month's worth of vouchers to the poor and needy families she
serves. Another New Mexico housing authority representative stated that
100 families per month could lose access to vouchers in the region that
housing authority serves.
The Majority's carelessly slung meat cleaver doesn't stop there. H.J.
Res. 20 strips critical funding from the restoration of the Our Lady of
Guadalupe Mission; essential economic development funding for a
Business Park in Anthony-Berino; and desperately needed emergency
ambulance services for the citizens of the Village of Columbus.
Two weeks ago, New Mexico Governor Bill Richardson and I announced
our bipartisan determination to fight the dangerous scourge of
methamphetamine use, production, and distribution in our state.
Tragically, the Majority's ill-considered cuts will slash funding for
the Drug Enforcement Administration Mobile Enforcement Teams (MET) by
$30 million and 134 agents and Regional Enforcement Teams (RET) by $9
million and 23 agents. Our local and state law enforcement officers
depend upon the MET and RET initiatives as two of their most effective
tools in this fight. Many officers in my district have told me that
even at current levels, MET funding is insufficient.
Perhaps the Majority's leadership has decided this battle isn't worth
fighting. A few moments with the individuals and families whose lives
this evil drug has destroyed might change their minds. But they don't
seem to have the time to stop and think about how their choices will
affect the safety of real people.
H.J. Res. 20 also reduces the funding associated with the Base
Realignment and Closure Commission (BRAC) process by nearly $4 billion,
causing delays in the scheduled repositioning of the 1st Armored
Division from Germany to Fort Bliss and the Air Force Special
Operations Command from overseas to Cannon Air Force Base. The
Majority's decision not only perpetuates inefficient overseas bases; it
severely impacts the painstaking community development plans devised by
cities like Las Cruces, Alamogordo, and Clovis in New Mexico.
Last, but certainly not least given the Majority's lip service in
support of supplemental and alternative energy technologies, H.J. Res.
20 shreds funding for promising initiatives in this area. Consider, for
example, a letter I submit for the Record from Karl Gawell of the
Geothermal Energy Association. Mr. Gawell states that this legislation
``will be a serious setback for efforts in the House and Senate to
restore the DOE geothermal research program.''
I have worked with Mr. Gawell to explore opportunities for expanded
geothermal energy development in Southern New Mexico and I take his
concerns very seriously. I hope that my colleagues will, too.
Mr. Speaker, as one who remains committed to vigorously fighting
wasteful spending, I understand--and share--the Majority's desire to
eliminate unnecessary earmarks. A rushed and ham-handed bill designed
for appearances isn't the right way to do it. My constituents deserve
the chance to have their voices heard--an opportunity which the normal
process of public hearings is designed to provide.
Certainly, H.J. Res. 20 contains positive elements, such as the
significant increase it provides in funding for veterans. I wish I
could vote yes for that reason alone--but I cannot support a bill that
inflicts so much pain on so many New Mexicans in an indiscriminate and
slipshod manner.
I urge my colleagues to join me in casting a ``no'' vote.
Geothermal Energy Association,
Washington, DC, January 30, 2007.
Dear Representative: I am writing to express our serious
concern about the direction being set by the FY 07
Appropriations bill, H.J. Res. 20, that the House will be
considered tomorrow. This bill will be a serious setback for
efforts in the House and Senate to restore the DOE geothermal
research program.
While the bill includes a generic $300 million increase in
funding for renewable energy, it allows the Secretary of
Energy to distribute those funds. Meanwhile, we are told that
the base for funding will be the Administration's FY 07
request, which for geothermal energy was ZERO!
The House adopted an amendment last year to the Energy and
Water Appropriations Bill sponsored by Representative
Millender-McDonald appropriating $5 million for geothermal
research in FY 07, and the Senate Appropriations Bill as
reported by Subcommittee and Committee would have restored
the entire $23.5 million geothermal program.
There is simply no justification for terminating geothermal
energy research at the Department of Energy. Recent studies
by the National Research Council, the Western Governors
Association Clean Energy Task Force, and MIT all support
expanding geothermal research funding to develop the
technology necessary to utilize this vast, untapped domestic
renewable energy resource.
We urge the House to take action to address this tragic
situation as it considers the
[[Page H1108]]
FY 07 Appropriations bill and ensure continued funding for
DOE's geothermal research efforts.
Sincerely,
Karl Gawell,
Executive Director.
Mr. SERRANO. Mr. Speaker. I rise today to express my support for the
final passage of H.J. Res. 20, a joint funding resolution to provide
continuing appropriations for fiscal year 2007. Let me be clear,
although we have been able to take care of some of the most significant
shortfalls, this is not a perfect funding resolution. This is also not
the process that we would have preferred, because, as we all know, the
funding for fiscal year 2007 should have been completed during the
109th session of Congress under the Republican majority.
With respect to the agencies included within the jurisdiction of the
Financial Services and General Government Subcommittee, a bi-partisan
attempt was made to address the most pressing needs. For example:
SBA disaster loans will receive $114 million for administrative
costs.
SBA Salaries and expenses will receive an additional $17.7 million.
The District of Columbia will receive additional funds for public
safety programs and $20 million for public transportation.
Treasury will receive an additional $26.6 million for high-priority
anti-terror and financial intelligence analyst activities.
Judiciary will receive an additional $179.1 million to avoid
furloughs and support critical functions.
OPM Retirement Systems Modernization will receive $13 million.
National Archives will receive $7.7 million in additional funding for
the Electronic Records Archive and $3 million for repairs relating to
the flooding of Archives headquarters.
Many important language provisions were also included in this
resolution such as a continuation of resources to help rural
communities, schools, and libraries afford telecommunications and
information services. Without this language, funding would have to be
cut or Universal Service fees would have to increase.
I was disappointed that we were unable to address the serious issue
of privatized debt collection by the Internal Revenue Service, a
practice that many Members have raised objections to continuing. I had
also hoped to be able to address the HAVA funding that some states,
including New York, may lose because of their inability to secure
voting machines within the designated time frame. In addition, language
provisions enacted in previous appropriations bills placing
restrictions on how the District of Columbia is able to spend its own
budget are, unfortunately, continued in this resolution.
However, I do intend to vote in favor of this Continuing Resolution.
As I stated earlier, it is not perfect, but it is the best that we
could do with the funds that we had. Beyond the immediate Financial
Services agency issues, there was an attempt to write a resolution that
addressed our nation's highest priority needs. Veterans Healthcare will
receive $32.3 billion, which is an increase of $3.6 billion above the
2006 funding level. Defense Health Programs will receive $21.2 billion,
an increase of $1.2 billion to provide care for our service members and
their families. Providing health care for our veterans and military
personnel is the right thing to do. Significant numbers of our veterans
are now returning from Iraq and Afghanistan and we have an obligation
to provide funding for their health care needs.
I was pleased that additional funding was provided for Pell grants.
This increased funding will help over 5.3 million of our students help
to pay for ever increasing college costs. This Continuing Resolution
also provided additional dollars for Head Start, a program that has
proven its effectiveness. The National Institutes of Health received
additional funds to support 500 more research project grants.
Our community health centers were allocated an increase of $206.9
million to allow for the expansion or creation of over 300 health
centers. These centers provide important health care services
throughout the United States, and this funding will be utilized for
priority health care needs. Ryan White CARE grants were increased to
bring them to the authorized level. Finally, this resolution addresses
important section 8 and public housing needs in our communities. All of
these budget increases are a part of a carefully crafted resolution
that attempts to address some of our nation's greatest needs.
I would urge my colleagues to vote in favor of H.J. Res 20 so that it
can go to the Senate and we can complete our work before our current
resolution expires on February 15th. We will be receiving the
President's 2008 budget next week, and as a Congress it is time to move
forward and work on the 2008 funding needs for our government.
Mr. LaHOOD. Mr. Speaker, I do not believe that it is in the best
interest of the country to play the blame game on how we reached the
current appropriations situation. The fact of the matter is that the
109th Congress did not get its work done on time, and we are here today
to correct that problem. Before we vote on this bill, I feel compelled
to make a couple of observations. First and foremost, I want to thank
Mr. Obey and his staff for the hard work that they have put into this
bill. Mr. Obey faced an enormous task, and I believe that no matter how
hard he tried, it would be impossible to address all of the funding
needs.
However, I am concerned that despite all the rhetoric that the
majority would work with the minority in crafting legislation, this
bill was put together in the back room by the House and Senate
majority, with little to no input from the minority. In addition, when
discussing the nature of the CR, the majority stressed that this bill
would not contain any earmarks. Yet, after negotiations were completed
between the House and Senate Appropriations Committees, it appears that
this bill will continue to fund a limited number of earmarks championed
by the Senate. While these earmarks are technical in nature, and the
case can be made that they should not be considered earmarks, the fact
of the matter is that they are earmarks, and I believe that it is wrong
for us to stand up and claim that this bill does not contain earmarks
when it does.
Given that we are operating under a closed rule, and that it us
unlikely that the Senate will remove their earmarks, I am resigned to
the fact that it is unlikely that we will have an opportunity to change
this legislation. Had we operated under regular order, I believe that a
bipartisan Appropriations committee could have crafted a more balanced
bill, which I would have been willing to support.
Mr. COSTA. Mr. Speaker, I rise on behalf of my constituents in the
small rural town of Mendota, California.
I thank my friends Chairman Obey and Ranking Member Lewis, and
Chairman Mollohan and Ranking Member Wolf for their hard work and
specifically for including sufficient funding to complete the
construction of the Mendota Federal Correction Institution.
Crowding at Federal medium-security facilities currently is 37
percent over capacity.
The Federal Bureau of Prisons expects 7,500 new Federal inmates
annually.
Once constructed, Mendota would provide 1,552 beds to help address
the growing demand.
The BOP has spent $100 million to complete 40 percent of a prison in
Mendota.
With this bill, the Federal Government is stepping up to a commitment
that was made to California and Mendota by providing enough funds to
complete the prison.
Mendota, is a city with an 18.6 percent unemployment rate and 42
percent living below the poverty line.
The prison will provide good jobs and a major boost to a very
depressed local economy.
Again, thank you to my colleagues, completing Mendota is a sign that
our new majority is committed to responsible governance.
Mr. BISHOP of Georgia. Mr. Speaker, I rise today in support of the
Continuing Resolution and commend my colleagues in moving forward from
the budgetary crisis left to us the 109th ``Do-Nothing'' Congress. I
especially commend Chairman Obey for the overall balance and fairness
reflected in this CR given the difficult choices confronting him and
the leadership in tackling such a complex fiscal policy challenge. I am
pleased to see that key areas such as Veterans and Defense Health,
Homeland Security, Transportation, Education and Social Security will
be provided modest increases in funding to keep pace with inflation.
However, I am concerned that not fully funding BRAC will likely delay
some projects--for example in my district, Fort Benning may not have
the ability to undertake the new construction projects planned in
conjunction with the growth resulting from the BRAC process.
Additionally, I recognize the explosion of congressional earmarks in
recent years which funded special interest projects and promulgated
negative perceptions about this legislative body. But the complete
omission of earmarks on this year's CR is disconcerting. I am
supportive of the process knowing that my district, which is among the
poorest in the country, has benefited tremendously from earmarks.
Specifically in my district, previously House-approved projects that
stand to lose in the CR include funding for: hospitals; water
management systems; family counseling and youth mentoring; cancer
education and early detection; upgrading sewer systems; and the list
goes on.
In many cases, the earmark process has provided an important vehicle
for Members of Congress to direct much needed federal support to very
worthy projects and organizations which otherwise would be ignored.
We must not throw the ``baby out with the bathwater.'' Moving
forward, I pledge to work closely with the leadership on real and
effective reforms especially in regards to transparency, efficiency,
accountability, and ethics.
[[Page H1109]]
Mr. HALL of Texas. Mr. Speaker, I rise today to speak on the FY 2007
Continuing Resolution.
I am pleased to see that the Appropriations Committee followed the
President's recommendations with the American Competitiveness
Initiative by increasing funds to physical sciences research. The
funding that we put into basic research at the National Science
Foundation and the Departments of Energy and Commerce will pave the way
for innovative breakthroughs. I am hopeful that the Senate will also
prioritize these important science initiatives so that we can ensure
that America remains globally competitive well into the future.
While many science accounts are adequately supported, the NASA
account is not. H.J. Res. 20 reduces NASA's planned FY 2007 funding by
$545.3 million. Most of the savings come from the Exploration Systems
account, the program that funds development of the next space vehicle.
As this Congress understands, we need to retire the Space Shuttle in
2010 and introduce its successor shortly thereafter. The more we cut
this budget item, the longer our nation must wait for continued manned
access to space. At a time when countries like China and India are
challenging America in outer space, we need to remain leaders in this
field. We cannot do that if Congress does not adequately fund our
ventures into space.
I am also disappointed that the Space Shuttle and International Space
Station as well as the Space Science and Aeronautics programs are also
underfunded.
It is for these reasons that I introduced an amendment yesterday to
restore funding to NASA. Unfortunately, the Rules Committee did not
accept any amendments to this bill, and Congress will not have the
opportunity to vote on this important program. In the last Congress, we
voted to support the Vision for Space Exploration and return to the
Moon. If we are to live up to that promise, then we need to follow
through with adequate appropriations. We also need to give our current
programs the best chance to succeed.
I will work with Chairman Bart Gordon and the appropriators to ensure
that the Fiscal Year 2008 budget will adequately address our Nation's
space and aeronautics needs.
Mr. BAIRD. Mr. Speaker, I rise today to discuss an issue of
importance to my congressional district in Southwest Washington.
The White Pass Ski Area is located in the majestic Cascade Mountains
in the Gifford Pinchot and Wenatchee National Forests. The area is
commonly referred to by skiers as ``the jewel of the Pacific
Northwest'' for its breathtaking views of Mt. Rainer and exciting
skiing opportunities. The area, which provides critical tourism revenue
to the surrounding rural communities, is now looking to expand to
provide greater opportunities to skiers in the Pacific Northwest.
The Washington State Wilderness Act of 1984 added over 23,000 acres
of land to the Goat Rocks Wilderness Area and removed from wilderness
designation 800 acres adjacent to the White Pass Ski Area as having
``significant potential for ski development'' and urging the Secretary
of Agriculture to ``utilize this potential, in accordance with
applicable laws, rules and regulations.''
The Gifford Pinchot National Forest Land and Resource Management Plan
allocated the 800-acre area that Congress had withdrawn from the
Wilderness Area back in 1984 to Developed Recreation in recognition of
the intent of Congress. However, the LRMP concurrently inventoried as
roadless the same 800-acre area.
It is well-understood that it was congressional intent to permit
expansion of the White Pass Ski Area. I would like to submit for the
record a letter signed by all living Members of the 1984 congressional
delegation, stating that it was their intent to provide for the
expansion of White Pass Ski Area. In a February 3, 2004 letter, the
U.S. Department of Agriculture also confirmed this congressional
intent, stating: ``We agree that the intent of Congress was clearly to
allow for ski area development in the Hogback Basin.''
The Fiscal Year 2007 Interior Appropriations Bill that passed the
House in May of last year included important information clarifying
congressional intent to permit expansion of White Pass Ski Area. The
language stated:
The Committee notes that the Washington State Wilderness Act of 1984
removed from wilderness designation 800 acres of land adjacent to the
White Pass Ski Area in Washington State for potential ski development.
The Committee notes that the Gifford Pinchot National Forest Land and
Resource Management Plan allocated the 800-acre area as Developed
Recreation to allow for ski area expansion, while concurrently
inventorying the same land as roadless to reflect its current physical
character. The Committee recognizes that it was the intent of Congress
to permit ski area expansion into this 800-acre area and urges the
Secretary of Agriculture, once the Environmental Impact Statement for
the White Pass Ski Area's Master Development Plan is properly
completed, to move forward expeditiously in approving the expansion
plans in accordance with all applicable laws, rules, and regulations.
Unfortunately, the Continuing Resolution that we are going to pass
today does not include any report language, including the language
clarifying congressional intent as it relates to White Pass Ski Area.
I wanted to bring this issue to the attention of my colleagues and
highlight the fact that the House Appropriations Committee was prepared
and willing to clarify congressional intent, and that the full House
approved that clarification by voting for the Fiscal Year 2007 Interior
Appropriations Bill in May. In keeping with this, I urge the Secretary
of Agriculture to move forward expeditiously in approving the expansion
plans in accordance with all applicable laws, rules, and regulations--
once the Environmental Impact Statement is properly completed.
July 7, 2005.
Mike Johanns,
Secretary of Agriculture,
Washington, DC.
Dear Secretary Johanns: As members of the 1984 Washington
Congressional delegation, we are writing to express our
collective dismay over an injustice that has continued over
the past 21 years.
Over two decades ago, we succeeded in passing through the
Congress the Washington Wilderness Act of 1984 (Washington
Wilderness Act; P.L. 98-339). This legislation added 23,000
acres of wilderness along and near Highway 12, while removing
from wilderness designation 800 acres that are adjacent to
the White Pass Ski Area. As reported language stated,
legislation removed the 800 acres from wilderness so the
Secretary of Agriculture could evaluate its ``significant
potential for ski area development.''
Now, twenty one years after passage of this Act, the White
Pass Ski Area remains mired down in its third attempt at
completing an Environmental Impact Study to add these acres.
Something has gone terribly wrong.
The White Pass Ski Area, which began operations in 1952, is
located at the crest of the Cascade Mountains in south-
central Washington State within the boundaries of the
Wenatchee-Okanagan and Gifford Pinchot National Forests.
Plans for expansion of the White Pass Ski Area were first
initiated in the late 1950's and included the Hogback Basin.
In 1961, the White Pass Company submitted to the Forest
Service a survey and formal request for additional expansion
area on the north slope of Hogback Mountain, and requested it
not be incorporated within the anticipated wilderness
boundary. The Forest Service concurred with the proposed
boundary adjustments.
However, these discussions were not brought forward during
Congressional evaluation of the proposed wilderness
legislation. The Wilderness Act of 1964 (PL 88-577)
subsequently incorporated the Goat Rocs Wild Area, including
most of Hogback Basin, into the National Wilderness
Preservation System as the Goat Rocks Wilderness. Despite the
incorporation of the proposed expansion area into the Goat
Rocks Wilderness, discussions concerning White Pass expansion
plans and the need for a boundary adjustment continued over
the next 20 years.
In the early 1980's supporters of the ski area approached
Congress to lobby for a wilderness boundary adjustment during
the days preceding passage of the 1984 Washington Wilderness
Act. Environmental interests were concerned with the
precedent created by adjusting the Wilderness boundary, but
``agreed with the expansion of downhill skiing opportunities
in exchange for significant expansion of Goat Rocks . . .''
(Sid Morrison letter to Supervisor O'Neal April 17, 1989).
The purpose of the 1984 Washington Wilderness Act were to
``(1) designate certain National Forest System lands in the
state of Washington as components of the National Wilderness
Preservation System, . . . and (2) insure that certain other
National Forest System lands in the State of Washington be
available for non-wilderness multiple uses.'' (PL 98-336, Sec
2(b)(1 and 2) Through the 1984 legislation, some 23,000 acres
of land were added to the Goat Rocks Wilderness while 800
acres were released from the wilderness area (refer to Goat
Rocks Add. West Side map #WA-W-109, March 1984).
The Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee Report
(98-461) describing the legislation and its objectives
provides further explanation of the wilderness release
language in the Act. ``As reported, S. 837 would add
approximately 23,143 acres to the existing Goat Rocks
Wilderness established by Congress in 1964. In addition, some
800 acres would be deleted from the existing wilderness. The
800 acres deleted from the existing Goat Rocks Wilderness
Area have significant potential for ski development and
should be managed by the Secretary of Agriculture to utilize
this potential, in accordance with applicable laws, rules and
regulations (Senate Rpt. 98-461, page 10).''
The dilemma is that, because of multiple land use
designations for the proposed expansion area, in combination
with other procedural issues, efforts to approve expansion
plans have been repeatedly thwarted. The conflicting,
confusing and uncertain status of the subject lands needs
addressing.
The need for administrative action with respect to the
White Pass Ski Area expansion
[[Page H1110]]
project is evident from the 40-year history of expansion
attempts. Maintaining this area in a non-developed recreation
status is not consistent with the intent of Congress. Over
the past 21 years, various actions have continually
frustrated the intent of Congress to allow for the potential
expansion of White Pass Ski Area.
In order to prevent the failure of a third attempt to
resolve the expansion need, White Pass is committed to
complete another NEPA analysis. Based on findings from the
analysis, we the undersigned strongly urge the current
Washington Congressional delegation and the Secretary of
Agriculture to provide a vehicle for the White Pass Company
to expand into Hogback Basin without further delay and the
threat of costly appeals and judicial reviews.
We hope that you will agree that the conflicting, confusing
and uncertain status of the subject lands deserve your
thoughtful clarification, correction and resolution.
Sincerely,
Sid Morrison, U.S. Congressman 4th District, Mike Lowry,
Governor, U.S. Congressman, 7th District, Slade Gorton,
U.S. Senator, Al Swift, U.S. Congressman 2nd District,
Don Bonker, U.S. Congressman 3rd District, Norm Dicks,
U.S. Congressman 6th District, Dan Evans, U.S. Senator,
Governor, Tom Foley, U.S. Congressman 5th District.
Mr. SKELTON. Mr. Speaker, at the conclusion of the 109th Congress,
Republicans adjourned for the year without completing work on 9 of the
11 budget bills that fund the operations of the federal government.
Completion of the federal government's annual budget is one of
Congress' most critical tasks, but even though several months have gone
by since the beginning of the fiscal year, only 2 of the 11 bills for
fiscal year 2007--Defense and Homeland Security Appropriations--have
been signed into law.
This failure to complete Congress' most basic task--to pay the
country's bills--has left newly elected leaders of the House and the
Senate with no choice but to make tough choices with regard to the
fiscal year 2007 budget.
Since October 2006, the federal government has been operating on the
basis of a temporary measure known as a continuing resolution. This
resolution is set to expire on February 15, 2007, and unless Congress
approves funding for federal programs covering Agriculture; Commerce,
Justice, and Science; Energy and Water; Foreign Operations; Interior
and the Environment; Labor, Health & Human Services, and Education;
Legislative Branch; Military Construction and Veterans Affairs; and
Transportation, Treasury, and Housing, federal government operations in
these areas will cease.
Over the past weeks, House leaders have been writing legislation that
would ensure the federal government remains operational through fiscal
year 2007. Today, the House is considering H.J. Res. 20, a joint
resolution that will keep the federal government open and require most
federal programs to operate under tight budget constraints. While
modest increases were allotted to some of America's high priority
items, such as veterans' and military health care, law enforcement, and
education, the bill cuts over 60 federal programs and rescinds
unobligated balances on many other programs to pay for them. Further,
the bill explicitly eliminates special funding provisions, commonly
referred to as ``earmarks.''
H.J. Res. 20 is not a perfect bill, and I am concerned about how it
might impact some federal programs that are important to Missouri
residents. Despite my concerns, I have concluded that it is in our
nation's best interest to quickly approve this appropriations package
and focus our attention toward the President's fiscal year 2008 budget
and the President's anticipated supplemental appropriations request for
military efforts in Iraq and Afghanistan. I commend Congressman Obey
for drafting such complex legislation that makes the best of a bad
situation.
Mr. YOUNG of Florida. Mr. Speaker, I rise today to discuss the
funding recommendations for accounts under the jurisdiction of the
Defense Subcommittee.
The House approved the conference report on the Defense
Appropriations Act for fiscal year 2007 on September 26th, 2006 by a
vote of 394 to 22, and the President signed the bill into law on
September 29th. However, several important accounts that were
previously within the jurisdiction of the Subcommittee on Military
Quality of Life have been transferred back to the Defense Subcommittee,
and therefore are addressed in this continuing resolution.
Two of the most important of these are the Basic Allowance of Housing
for our active duty members of the military, and the Defense Health
Program.
I am pleased this continuing resolution provides the minimum funding
level necessary for both these activities. This legislation provides an
increase of $500 million for Basic Allowance for House above the fiscal
year 2006 enacted level, and an increase of $1.2 billion for the
Defense Health Program.
However, we need to recognize that both programs will need additional
funds during the rest of this fiscal year. Rates for Basic Allowance
for Housing were increased late last year following the normal survey
of market housing rates. This has created a shortfall of $1.4 billion.
In addition, due to inflationary increases in health care costs and
an Administration proposal for an increase in insurance co-payments
that was not approved by the Congress, the Defense Health Program faces
an additional shortfall of at least $700 million.
We must address these funding shortfalls later this year. Our highest
priority in the Defense budget should be for the well-being of our
military personnel, and I know my Subcommittee chairman shares my
concerns. This continuing resolution is just a first step toward
meeting that responsibility in fiscal year 2007.
Mr. OBEY. Mr. Speaker, I yield back the balance of my time.
The SPEAKER pro tempore. All time for debate has expired.
Pursuant to House Resolution 116, the joint resolution is considered
read and the previous question is ordered.
The question is on the engrossment and third reading of the joint
resolution.
The joint resolution was ordered to be engrossed and read a third
time, and was read the third time.
Motion to Recommit Offered by Mr. Lewis of California
Mr. LEWIS of California. Mr. Speaker, I have a motion to recommit
with instructions at the desk.
The SPEAKER pro tempore. Is the gentleman opposed to the joint
resolution?
Mr. LEWIS of California. Yes, I am opposed to the bill in its present
form.
The SPEAKER pro tempore. The Clerk will report the motion to
recommit.
The Clerk read as follows:
Mr. Lewis of California moves to recommit the joint
resolution, H. J. Res. 20, to the Committee on Appropriations
with instructions to report the same back to the House
forthwith with the following amendments:
On page 26, line 2, strike ``$3,902,556,000'' and insert
$3,977,556,000''.
On page 26, line 6, strike ``$3,726,778,000'' and insert
``$3,926,778,000''.
On page 33, line 5, strike $6,275,103,000'' and insert
``$5,875,103,000''.
On page 33, line 5, strike ``and'' and on line 6, before
the period, insert the following:
``; and `Fossil Energy Research and Development',
$542,314,000''.
On page 39, after line 24, insert the following new
sections:
``Sec. 20327. Notwithstanding section 101, the level for
`Independent Agencies, Denali Commission' shall be
$2,500,000.
``Sec. 20328. Of the funds appropriated under section 130
of division H of the Consolidated Appropriations Act, 2004
(Public Law 108-199) under the heading `Department of Energy,
Energy Programs, Science', as amended by section 315 of the
Energy and Water Development Appropriations Act, 2006 (Public
Law 109-103) for the Iowa Environmental and Education project
in Coralville, Iowa, $44,569,000 is hereby deobligated and
rescinded.
On page 54, line 18, strike ``$2,670,730,000'' and insert
``$2,663,855,000''.
On page 62, line 3, strike ``$6,883,586,000'' and insert
``$6,844,303,000''.
On page 64, after line 13, insert the following:
``(e) Notwithstanding any other provision of this division,
the twelfth proviso under the heading `Health Resources and
Services Administration, Health Resources and Services' in
the Department of Health and Human Services Appropriations
Act, 2006 shall not apply to funds appropriated by this
division.
On page 79, after line 2, insert the following:
``Sec. 20646. Notwithstanding any other provision of this
division, section 105 of the Departments of Labor, Health and
Human Services, and Education, and Related Agencies
Appropriations Act, 2006 (Public Law 109-149) shall not apply
to funds appropriated by this division.
On page 84, line 17, strike ``$2,013,000,000'' and insert
``$2,053,017,000''.
On page 85, line 23. strike ``$579,000,000'' and insert
``$594,991,000''.
On page 85, line 24, strike ``$671,000,000'' and insert
``$676,829,000''.
On page 86, line 2, strike ``$505,000,000'' and insert
``$509,126,000''.
On page 86, line 3, strike ``$1,168,000,000'' and insert
``$1,183,138,000''.
On page 86, line 4 strike ``$750,000,000'' and insert
``$755,071,000''.
On page 90, line 13, strike ``$1,737,412,000'' and insert
``$1,787,412,000''.
Mr. LEWIS of California (during the reading). Mr. Speaker, I ask
unanimous consent that the motion be considered as read and printed in
the Record.
The SPEAKER pro tempore. Is there objection to the request of the
gentleman from California?
There was no objection.
The SPEAKER pro tempore. Pursuant to the rule, the gentleman from
California is recognized for 5 minutes in support of his motion.
[[Page H1111]]
Mr. LEWIS of California. Mr. Speaker, the legislation before us is
intended to eliminate earmarks to fund a variety of important Federal
programs. In spite of those best intentions, however, a close reading
of the bill revealed that earmarks were, in fact, left in.
Additionally, a number of critical programs affecting new law
enforcement, military construction and military families have been
shortchanged. In an effort to live up to the spirit of what this bill
intended, my motion to recommit would eliminate nearly $600 million in
earmarks, other unnecessary spending, and also use those funds to fully
fund the Drug Enforcement Administration's effort to combat
methamphetamines and other illicit drugs, restore critically needed
funds to military construction and military family housing accounts,
and reduce the Federal deficit.
Specifically, this motion would accomplish the following:
First, rescind the remaining $44.6 million from the Senate's rain
forest in Iowa earmark, eliminate $94 million unnecessary and
unrequested funding for the Denali Commission, funding that is nothing
more than a thinly-disguised Senate earmark for Alaska. Eliminate $400
million of ongoing earmarks from the NNSA weapons activity accounts.
Eliminate $49.7 million of spending in DOE's fossil energy account,
spending that duplicates mandatory funding by the Energy Policy Act of
2005.
My motion would distribute these savings in the following manner:
First, $50 million for the DEA's efforts to combat meth and other
illicit drugs; $275 million for basic allowance for housing; $86
million for critically needed military construction and family housing;
$178 million for deficit reduction.
Mr. Speaker, I encourage my colleagues, both Republicans and
Democrats, to live up to the spirit of this legislation by voting to
eliminate earmarks and put those funds to better use by combating meth,
supporting our military families and reducing the deficit.
I urge a strong bipartisan vote on this motion to recommit.
Mr. Speaker, I yield whatever time may remain to Mr. Pearce of New
Mexico.
Mr. PEARCE. Mr. Speaker, I rise to support the Republican motion to
recommit.
Last year, I held nearly 40 town hall meetings across New Mexico
talking to our local communities about combating methamphetamine use in
our towns. Twenty of these meetings were in schools with our school
kids, and we found that five times the national average of kids in New
Mexico are addicted to methamphetamines, up to 15 percent of our
elementary and high school students are already addicted.
Two weeks ago, New Mexico Governor Bill Richardson and I announced
our bipartisan determination to fight the dangerous scourge of
methamphetamine use, production and distribution in our State.
Tragically, the majority's ill-considered cuts will slash funding for
the Drug Enforcement Administration Mobile Enforcement Teams, the MET
teams, by $30 million and 134 agents, and Region Enforcement Teams, the
RETs, by $9 million and 23 agents.
Our local and State law enforcement officers depend on the MET and
RET initiative as two of the most effective tools in this fight. Many
officers in my district have told me that even at current level of
funding, MET is insufficient.
Perhaps the majority leadership has decided battles against illegal
drugs are not worth fighting. A few moments with the individuals and
families who I met with in my 20 school meetings and 19 additional town
hall meetings might change their minds. But we did not seem to have
time to consider the people and the effects on the lives of kids in the
real America that we face today. We were explained, well, maybe we made
a few mistakes. Do tell. We made mistakes that affect the lives of the
young people of this Nation and the heart and the soul of this country.
I urge my colleagues to support this motion to recommit. Work with us
to protect and defend the families of New Mexico and all of America.
The SPEAKER pro tempore. The gentleman has 30 seconds remaining.
Mr. LEWIS of California. I yield back the balance of my time.
Mr. OBEY. Mr. Speaker, I rise in opposition to the motion to
recommit.
The SPEAKER pro tempore. The gentleman is recognized for 5 minutes.
Mr. OBEY. Mr. Speaker, the fact is that this is simply a nit-picking
motion which, if adopted, would kill our chances of passing this
resolution in the United States Senate and result in us living on an
'06 continuing resolution, which would deny us the ability to provide
additional funds for veterans health care, for education, for veterans
housing and the like.
I would point out, this resolution already adds $500 million to the
basic allowance for housing. This CR already increases family housing
construction by $210 million and funds military construction at the
level of the President's request that have been authorized.
This motion would eliminate the weapons research account that has
been of some controversy today. I would point out, we have already cut
that account by $94 million. I doubt that the House wants to eliminate
that nuclear weapons research.
I would also say that in a new found and sudden burst of false piety,
we are now being chastised because we did not reach back and eliminate
an item that was approved 2 years ago for the State of Iowa by the
majority. In fact, the gentleman who was chairman of the committee when
that item was approved is none other than the gentleman offering the
motion right now.
I don't mind clearing up the mistakes for last year, of the
gentleman, I do mind being asked to go back 2 years to clear up your
mistakes. That is asking too much, even for us.
Secondly, I would say that some of us may not like the Denali
Commission, but it is a perfectly authorized program. And as much as I
might like to see a project like that in my district, I don't have one,
neither does the gentleman. I think it is illegitimate for us to single
out one legitimate program for elimination that would require us, I
think in the interest of fairness, to go back and look at hundreds of
other programs that have been approved in the past. So I urge a ``no''
vote.
{time} 1515
Mr. OBEY. Mr. Speaker, I yield back the balance of my time.
The SPEAKER pro tempore. Without objection, the previous question is
ordered on the motion to recommit.
There was no objection.
The SPEAKER pro tempore. The question is on the motion to recommit.
The question was taken; and the Speaker pro tempore announced that
the noes appeared to have it.
Mr. LEWIS of California. Mr. Speaker, on that I demand the yeas and
nays.
The yeas and nays were ordered.
The SPEAKER pro tempore. Pursuant to clauses 8 and 9 of rule XX, this
15-minute vote on the motion to recommit will be followed by 5-minute
votes on passage of House Joint Resolution 20, if ordered, and the
motion to suspend the rules and agree to House Concurrent Resolution 5.
The vote was taken by electronic device, and there were--yeas 196,
nays 228, not voting 11, as follows:
[Roll No. 71]
YEAS--196
Aderholt
Akin
Bachmann
Bachus
Baker
Barrett (SC)
Barrow
Bartlett (MD)
Barton (TX)
Biggert
Bilbray
Bilirakis
Bishop (UT)
Blackburn
Blunt
Boehner
Bonner
Bono
Boozman
Boustany
Brady (TX)
Brown (SC)
Brown-Waite, Ginny
Buchanan
Burgess
Burton (IN)
Calvert
Camp (MI)
Campbell (CA)
Cannon
Cantor
Capito
Carter
Castle
Chabot
Coble
Cole (OK)
Conaway
Crenshaw
Cubin
Culberson
Davis (KY)
Davis, David
Davis, Tom
Deal (GA)
Dent
Diaz-Balart, L.
Diaz-Balart, M.
Doolittle
Drake
Dreier
Duncan
Ehlers
Emerson
English (PA)
Everett
Fallin
Feeney
Ferguson
Flake
Forbes
Fortenberry
Fossella
Foxx
Franks (AZ)
Frelinghuysen
Gallegly
Garrett (NJ)
Gerlach
Gillmor
Gingrey
Gohmert
Goode
Goodlatte
Granger
Graves
Hall (TX)
Hastings (WA)
Hayes
Heller
Hensarling
Herger
Hobson
Hoekstra
Hulshof
Hunter
Inglis (SC)
Issa
Jindal
Johnson (IL)
Johnson, Sam
Jones (NC)
Jordan
Kanjorski
Keller
King (IA)
King (NY)
Kingston
Kirk
Kline (MN)
Knollenberg
Kuhl (NY)
LaHood
Lamborn
Latham
LaTourette
Lewis (CA)
Lewis (KY)
Linder
LoBiondo
Lucas
Lungren, Daniel E.
[[Page H1112]]
Mack
Manzullo
Marchant
McCarthy (CA)
McCaul (TX)
McCotter
McCrery
McHenry
McHugh
McKeon
McMorris Rodgers
Mica
Miller (FL)
Miller (MI)
Miller, Gary
Moran (KS)
Murphy, Tim
Musgrave
Myrick
Neugebauer
Nunes
Pearce
Pence
Peterson (PA)
Petri
Pickering
Pitts
Platts
Poe
Porter
Price (GA)
Pryce (OH)
Putnam
Radanovich
Ramstad
Regula
Rehberg
Reichert
Renzi
Reynolds
Rogers (AL)
Rogers (KY)
Rogers (MI)
Rohrabacher
Ros-Lehtinen
Roskam
Royce
Ryan (WI)
Sali
Saxton
Schmidt
Sensenbrenner
Sessions
Shadegg
Shays
Shimkus
Shuster
Simpson
Smith (NE)
Smith (NJ)
Smith (TX)
Souder
Stearns
Sullivan
Tancredo
Terry
Thornberry
Tiahrt
Tiberi
Turner
Upton
Walberg
Walden (OR)
Walsh (NY)
Wamp
Weldon (FL)
Weller
Westmoreland
Whitfield
Wicker
Wilson (SC)
Wolf
Young (AK)
Young (FL)
NAYS--228
Abercrombie
Ackerman
Allen
Altmire
Andrews
Arcuri
Baca
Baird
Baldwin
Bean
Becerra
Berkley
Berman
Berry
Bishop (GA)
Bishop (NY)
Blumenauer
Boren
Boswell
Boucher
Boyd (FL)
Boyda (KS)
Brady (PA)
Braley (IA)
Brown, Corrine
Butterfield
Capps
Capuano
Cardoza
Carnahan
Carney
Carson
Castor
Chandler
Clarke
Clay
Cleaver
Clyburn
Cohen
Conyers
Cooper
Costa
Costello
Courtney
Cramer
Crowley
Cuellar
Cummings
Davis (AL)
Davis (CA)
Davis (IL)
Davis, Lincoln
DeFazio
DeGette
Delahunt
DeLauro
Dicks
Dingell
Doggett
Donnelly
Doyle
Edwards
Ellison
Ellsworth
Emanuel
Engel
Eshoo
Etheridge
Farr
Fattah
Filner
Frank (MA)
Giffords
Gillibrand
Gonzalez
Gordon
Green, Al
Green, Gene
Grijalva
Gutierrez
Hall (NY)
Hare
Harman
Hastings (FL)
Herseth
Hill
Hinchey
Hinojosa
Hirono
Hodes
Holden
Holt
Honda
Hooley
Hoyer
Inslee
Israel
Jackson (IL)
Jackson-Lee (TX)
Jefferson
Johnson (GA)
Johnson, E. B.
Jones (OH)
Kagen
Kaptur
Kennedy
Kildee
Kilpatrick
Kind
Klein (FL)
Kucinich
Lampson
Langevin
Larsen (WA)
Larson (CT)
Lee
Levin
Lewis (GA)
Lipinski
Loebsack
Lofgren, Zoe
Lowey
Lynch
Mahoney (FL)
Maloney (NY)
Markey
Marshall
Matheson
Matsui
McCarthy (NY)
McCollum (MN)
McGovern
McIntyre
McNerney
McNulty
Meehan
Meek (FL)
Meeks (NY)
Melancon
Michaud
Millender-McDonald
Miller (NC)
Miller, George
Mitchell
Mollohan
Moore (KS)
Moore (WI)
Moran (VA)
Murphy (CT)
Murphy, Patrick
Murtha
Nadler
Napolitano
Neal (MA)
Oberstar
Obey
Olver
Ortiz
Pallone
Pascrell
Pastor
Payne
Pelosi
Perlmutter
Peterson (MN)
Pomeroy
Price (NC)
Rahall
Rangel
Reyes
Rodriguez
Ross
Rothman
Roybal-Allard
Ruppersberger
Rush
Ryan (OH)
Salazar
Sanchez, Linda T.
Sanchez, Loretta
Sarbanes
Schakowsky
Schiff
Schwartz
Scott (GA)
Scott (VA)
Serrano
Sestak
Shea-Porter
Sherman
Shuler
Sires
Skelton
Smith (WA)
Snyder
Solis
Space
Spratt
Stark
Stupak
Sutton
Tanner
Tauscher
Taylor
Thompson (CA)
Thompson (MS)
Tierney
Towns
Udall (CO)
Udall (NM)
Van Hollen
Velazquez
Visclosky
Walz (MN)
Wasserman Schultz
Waters
Watson
Watt
Waxman
Weiner
Welch (VT)
Wexler
Wilson (NM)
Wilson (OH)
Woolsey
Wu
Wynn
Yarmuth
NOT VOTING--11
Alexander
Buyer
Davis, Jo Ann
Gilchrest
Hastert
Higgins
Lantos
McDermott
Norwood
Paul
Slaughter
{time} 1541
Messrs. MOLLOHAN, GENE GREEN of Texas, STUPAK and HARE changed their
vote from ``yea'' to ``nay.''
Mr. KUHL of New York changed his vote from ``nay'' to ``yea.''
So the motion to recommit was rejected.
The result of the vote was announced as above recorded.
Stated against:
Ms. SLAUGHTER. Mr. Speaker, on rollcall No. 71, I arrived at the door
when the vote was called. I was detained at the office. Had I been
present, I would have voted ``nay.''
The SPEAKER pro tempore. The question is on the passage of the joint
resolution.
The question was taken; and the Speaker pro tempore announced that
the noes appeared to have it.
Recorded Vote
Mr. OBEY. Mr. Speaker, I demand a recorded vote.
A recorded vote was ordered.
The SPEAKER pro tempore. This will be a 5-minute vote.
The vote was taken by electronic device, and there were--ayes 286,
noes 140, not voting 9, as follows:
[Roll No. 72]
AYES--286
Abercrombie
Ackerman
Allen
Altmire
Andrews
Arcuri
Baca
Baird
Baker
Baldwin
Barrow
Bartlett (MD)
Bean
Becerra
Berkley
Berman
Berry
Biggert
Bilirakis
Bishop (GA)
Bishop (NY)
Blumenauer
Bono
Boren
Boswell
Boucher
Boustany
Boyd (FL)
Boyda (KS)
Brady (PA)
Braley (IA)
Brown (SC)
Brown, Corrine
Brown-Waite, Ginny
Buchanan
Butterfield
Capito
Capps
Capuano
Cardoza
Carnahan
Carney
Carson
Castle
Castor
Chandler
Clarke
Clay
Cleaver
Clyburn
Cohen
Conyers
Cooper
Costa
Costello
Courtney
Cramer
Crowley
Cuellar
Cummings
Davis (AL)
Davis (CA)
Davis (IL)
Davis, Lincoln
Davis, Tom
DeFazio
DeGette
Delahunt
DeLauro
Dent
Dicks
Dingell
Doggett
Donnelly
Doolittle
Doyle
Drake
Edwards
Ellison
Ellsworth
Emanuel
Emerson
Engel
English (PA)
Eshoo
Etheridge
Farr
Fattah
Ferguson
Filner
Fossella
Frank (MA)
Gerlach
Giffords
Gillibrand
Gonzalez
Goode
Gordon
Graves
Green, Al
Green, Gene
Grijalva
Gutierrez
Hall (NY)
Hare
Harman
Hastings (FL)
Hastings (WA)
Herseth
Hill
Hinchey
Hinojosa
Hirono
Hodes
Holden
Holt
Honda
Hooley
Hoyer
Inslee
Israel
Jackson (IL)
Jackson-Lee (TX)
Jefferson
Jindal
Johnson (GA)
Johnson (IL)
Johnson, E. B.
Johnson, Sam
Jones (NC)
Jones (OH)
Kagen
Kaptur
Keller
Kennedy
Kildee
Kilpatrick
Kind
King (NY)
Kirk
Klein (FL)
Kuhl (NY)
Lampson
Langevin
Lantos
Larsen (WA)
Larson (CT)
Latham
Lee
Levin
Lewis (GA)
Lipinski
LoBiondo
Loebsack
Lofgren, Zoe
Lowey
Lynch
Mahoney (FL)
Maloney (NY)
Manzullo
Markey
Marshall
Matheson
Matsui
McCarthy (NY)
McCollum (MN)
McCotter
McGovern
McHugh
McIntyre
McMorris Rodgers
McNerney
McNulty
Meehan
Meek (FL)
Meeks (NY)
Melancon
Michaud
Millender-McDonald
Miller (MI)
Miller (NC)
Miller, George
Mitchell
Mollohan
Moore (KS)
Moore (WI)
Moran (VA)
Murphy (CT)
Murphy, Patrick
Murphy, Tim
Murtha
Nadler
Napolitano
Neal (MA)
Oberstar
Obey
Olver
Ortiz
Pallone
Pascrell
Pastor
Payne
Pelosi
Perlmutter
Peterson (MN)
Petri
Platts
Pomeroy
Porter
Price (NC)
Pryce (OH)
Rahall
Ramstad
Rangel
Reichert
Renzi
Reyes
Reynolds
Rodriguez
Rogers (MI)
Ross
Rothman
Roybal-Allard
Ruppersberger
Rush
Ryan (OH)
Salazar
Sanchez, Linda T.
Sanchez, Loretta
Sarbanes
Schakowsky
Schiff
Schmidt
Schwartz
Scott (GA)
Scott (VA)
Serrano
Sestak
Shays
Shea-Porter
Sherman
Shuler
Shuster
Simpson
Sires
Skelton
Slaughter
Smith (NJ)
Smith (WA)
Snyder
Solis
Space
Spratt
Stark
Stupak
Sutton
Tanner
Tauscher
Taylor
Thompson (CA)
Thompson (MS)
Tierney
Towns
Udall (CO)
Udall (NM)
Upton
Van Hollen
Velazquez
Visclosky
Walsh (NY)
Walz (MN)
Wasserman Schultz
Waters
Watson
Watt
Waxman
Weiner
Welch (VT)
Weller
Wexler
Wilson (NM)
Wilson (OH)
Woolsey
Wu
Wynn
Yarmuth
NOES--140
Aderholt
Akin
Bachmann
Bachus
Barrett (SC)
Barton (TX)
Bilbray
Bishop (UT)
Blackburn
Blunt
Boehner
Bonner
Boozman
Brady (TX)
Burgess
Burton (IN)
Calvert
Camp (MI)
Campbell (CA)
Cannon
Cantor
Carter
Chabot
Coble
Cole (OK)
Conaway
Crenshaw
Cubin
Culberson
Davis (KY)
Davis, David
Deal (GA)
Diaz-Balart, L.
Diaz-Balart, M.
Dreier
Duncan
Ehlers
Everett
Fallin
Feeney
Flake
Forbes
Fortenberry
Foxx
Franks (AZ)
Frelinghuysen
Gallegly
Garrett (NJ)
Gillmor
Gingrey
Gohmert
Goodlatte
Granger
Hall (TX)
Hayes
Heller
Hensarling
Herger
Hobson
Hoekstra
Hulshof
Hunter
Inglis (SC)
Issa
Jordan
Kanjorski
King (IA)
Kingston
Kline (MN)
Knollenberg
Kucinich
LaHood
Lamborn
LaTourette
Lewis (CA)
Lewis (KY)
Linder
Lucas
Lungren, Daniel E.
Mack
Marchant
McCarthy (CA)
McCaul (TX)
McCrery
McHenry
McKeon
Mica
Miller (FL)
Miller, Gary
Moran (KS)
Musgrave
Myrick
Neugebauer
Nunes
Pearce
Pence
Peterson (PA)
Pickering
Pitts
Poe
Price (GA)
Putnam
Radanovich
Regula
Rehberg
Rogers (AL)
Rogers (KY)
Rohrabacher
Ros-Lehtinen
Roskam
Royce
Ryan (WI)
Sali
Saxton
Sensenbrenner
Sessions
[[Page H1113]]
Shadegg
Shimkus
Smith (NE)
Smith (TX)
Souder
Stearns
Sullivan
Tancredo
Terry
Thornberry
Tiahrt
Tiberi
Turner
Walberg
Walden (OR)
Wamp
Weldon (FL)
Westmoreland
Whitfield
Wicker
Wilson (SC)
Wolf
Young (AK)
Young (FL)
NOT VOTING--9
Alexander
Buyer
Davis, Jo Ann
Gilchrest
Hastert
Higgins
McDermott
Norwood
Paul
{time} 1550
So the joint resolution was passed.
The result of the vote was announced as above recorded.
A motion to reconsider was laid on the table.
____________________