[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 152 (2006), Part 8]
[Senate]
[Pages 10641-10642]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                         SUPPLEMENTAL SPENDING

  Mr. FRIST. Mr. President, I rise to discuss the issue of spending in 
Washington, DC. None of us, as elected representatives, Democrat or 
Republican, in the House or the Senate, can go home without people 
saying: Washington seems to be spending too much. I mention that only 
because we are going to be addressing the supplemental bill.
  As many people saw on the news last night, agreement was reached on 
the limit and content of the supplemental spending bill which we have 
been working on for well over 2 months. What we will talk about next 
week but what was demonstrated and what was released by the conference 
last night is that we are on the right track today. The level and the 
substance of that bill does adhere to our calls for a conference report 
that limited its total amount to the President's request for true 
emergency spending--no fat, no excessive spending. Those criteria have 
been met. It focuses resources on important priorities, priorities such 
as funding border security, which we spent well over a month on this 
floor talking about, on conducting the war on terror, and aiding 
hurricane recovery--all while exercising tight fiscal restraint and 
responsibility.
  Also of note, the bill contains a fiscally prudent spending level for 
this year's regular appropriations bills. This bill sets a 
discretionary spending level at the President's request of $873 
billion--another very important point of maintaining fiscal discipline.
  I applaud the leadership of Senator Cochran and Congressman Lewis in 
the House to control Federal spending and to ensure effective and 
appropriate Government use of taxpayer dollars so that our deficit can 
continue to decline and our economy can continue to grow and prosper.

[[Page 10642]]

  This adherence to keeping spending low, coupled with our Republican 
tax policy, has ushered in record economic growth: 5.3 million jobs 
have been created over the last 3 years; unemployment is down to 4.6, 
4.7 percent, lower than the average of the 1990s, lower than the 
average of the 1970s--again, a huge success.
  There is a lot more we have to do, but this supplemental bill is an 
important step, following through on Republican principles of fiscal 
restraint.
  I yield the floor.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER (Mr. Cornyn). The Senator from Montana is 
recognized.

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