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In the interest of time, I will try to be brief. I would like, however, to begin by saying that this is a good bill. I think the fact that we had a unanimous vote on the rule is symbolic of what is to come. Like those presented in each of the past few years, it is very much a solid, bipartisan effort of the

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   While we clearly had differences and many difficult decisions on several aspects of the bill as passed by each body, the conference report nevertheless represents a true collaboration of effort and an honest negotiated compromise. Again, I am grateful to my colleagues for their candor, perseverance, and friendship.

   With the House's indulgence, I would like to take a few minutes to briefly outline the highlights of the proposal. First and foremost, the conference report is within the 302(b) allocation for budget authority and outlays. The bill's discretionary spending is $85.4 billion in new budget authority, which is an increase of just over $2 billion above the budget submission and some $2.9 billion over last year's bill.

   I would note for the House that this level of discretionary spending includes emergency spending for $1.5 billion for FEMA for disaster relief requirements.

   We have tried as best we can to spread the proposed increases throughout the bill: discretionary veterans programs overall are increased by over $1.4 billion compared to 2001. This follows on some very substantial increases in the last 2 years, with $1.05 billion of the increase going to medical care and the remainder spread to research, processing veterans' compensation, pension and education claims, operating our national cemeteries, and increasing necessary construction at VA facilities by over $160 million over last year.

   Housing programs have increased in HUD by over $1.67 billion compared to 2001, with increases in the housing certificate program, public housing operating subsidies, the HOPWA program, HOME investment partnerships, the housing for the elderly and disabled programs, and the disabled program is a significant increase, and the lead hazard reduction program. It is important to note that this proposal also includes some very difficult but I believe extremely important and highly defensible changes in policy direction which are represented by reductions in the Public Housing Capital Fund and the Drug Elimination Grant Program. Neither of these programs is serving the best interests of the people they were intended to serve, and it is our job to take whatever steps are necessary to remedy the situation.

   In the case of capital funds , it meant getting tougher on public housing authorities to spend the dollars intended for the residents of public housing authority. There are literally hundreds of millions of dollars worth of code violations and hazards not getting fixed.

   In the case of the Drug Elimination Grant Program, it meant taking an honest look at whether HUD is the best entity to run this type of program.

[Time: 12:15]

   Based on HUD's track record, we did not believe that it was. Instead, this bill increases funding in the operating fund so that all PHAs will see an increase. They then have the discretion to use those funds as they see fit.

   The Environmental Protection Agency's funding increases some $586 million over the budget request, and $74 million above last year. This proposal continues to provide a strong research program as well as increased resources for the many State categorical grants, including section 106 water pollution grants, section 103 and 105 air pollution grants, and the new BEACH grant program. The Clean Water SRF program has been funded at $1.35 billion and the Safe Drinking Water SRF has received $850 million. These are substantial commitments. However, they are dwarfed by the need that is out there in combined sewer overflow projects throughout the country.

   FEMA's operating programs increase by nearly $135 million over the 2001 funding level and we have provided $2.1 billion in emergency and nonemergency dollars for disaster relief. I should also mention that $150 million has been provided for the new firefighter grant program which, as my colleagues can imagine, is a very, very popular and competitive program.

   NASA's programs will receive a net increase of $508 million over last year, and we have proposed several structural changes in the agency's account structure to provide them greater programmatic flexibility and the committee, better oversight capability.

   Finally, I am proud to say that we have raised the overall funding for the National Science Foundation by just over $316 million to a total program of $4.789 billion. That is an increase of 8.2 percent compared to last year. Doing a little research myself, 10 years ago that budget was half, so that the National Science Foundation budget has doubled in the past 10 years. The bulk of this increase will go to improve available resources for National Science Foundation's core research programs, bringing the total research program to nearly $3.6 billion, while the remainder would be spread to major research, construction and equipment, education and human resource programs, and salaries and expenses for NSF's capable staff.

   I would like to add that I personally would have liked to do more here, as I know my colleague, the gentleman from West Virginia (Mr. MOLLOHAN), would. However, to do so only could have been done at the expense of other very important programs found in other agencies throughout the bill. Having said that, given the increase proposed by the administration of 1 percent, we have done a remarkable job.

   All Members are, of course, aware of the difficulty in putting these bills together, especially with so many diverse and competing interests. Developing the perfect bill is probably impossible. Nevertheless, I believe we have done a tremendous job developing a bill that represents the interests of both the legislative and the executive branch.

   By the way, I would like to thank the executive branch for allowing us to do our job without a great deal of interference. They have been very cooperative. Their priorities were made. We tried to honor those priorities; in many cases we did. But the relationship this year was excellent.

   With that, Mr. Speaker, I want once again to thank all my colleagues for allowing us the privilege of presenting this conference report on the fiscal year 2002 appropriations for veterans, housing and independent agencies. I urge its adoption.

   Mr. Speaker, I include the following material for the RECORD:

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   Mr. Speaker, I reserve the balance of my time.

   Mr. MOLLOHAN. Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume. I rise in support of the 2002 VA, HUD and independent agencies conference report and all of its fundings.

   I want to begin by thanking Chairman WALSH who, as usual, has done an excellent job with this legislation. We appreciate his courtesies and the opportunity for input in the bill throughout the process. He has had an especially full plate this year, managing this bill with restricted allocations and at the same time providing leadership in the appropriations process to ensure that New York receives adequate funding to address its emergency needs arising out of the September 11 terrorist attacks.

   I want to begin by thanking the majority staff, Frank Cushing, Tim Peterson, Dena Baron, Jennifer Whitson, Jennifer Miller and Ron Anderson, for their hard work and openness during the development of this conference report. I must make particular note of their generosity in sharing their Capitol office space with the minority staff during the time that Members and staff were prohibited from occupying our office buildings. I also want to thank my excellent staff, Mike Stephens, Michelle Burkett, Angela June Ohm and Gavin Clingham, for their hard work during this process. All staff have really done an excellent job on a very difficult bill.

   Given the resources, Mr. Speaker, that this subcommittee was allocated, we were forced to work together in a constructive manner to reach reasoned compromises. No Member got everything that they wanted, each sacrificed on issues of importance, to us and to our caucuses, but we have produced a conference report worthy of the body's support.

   The bills passed by the House and the Senate were not significantly different in allocation but did contain significant substantive differences. In each case, a middle ground was sought and improvements have been made.

   I want to take a minute to discuss a few of the programmatic numbers in this conference agreement.

   Veterans remain a top priority of the members of this subcommittee. We have provided $21.3 billion for the medical care account. This is $350 million over the President's request, an increase of $1.5 billion over the current year, and almost $50 million over what was in the House bill when it left this body. We also increased the medical and prosthetic research account by $20 million over 2001 funding.

   Important to members of my caucus, we were able to improve the House-passed funding levels for the Department of Housing and Urban Development, the Environmental Protection Agency, and provide the Corporation for National and Community Service funding comparable to its fiscal year 2001 funding. The Public Housing Capital Fund was increased $290 million from the House-passed funding level, and we maintained the $250 million increase in the operating fund that was contained in the House bill. Funding to renew all existing Section 8 vouchers is included, as is funding to provide 18,000 new Fair Share vouchers and 7,000 new vouchers reserved for the disabled.

   Within EPA, we restored the Clean Water State Revolving Fund to the funding levels of past years, $1.35 billion, and provided an overall increase of $75 million over this fiscal year, nearly $600 million over the administration's request.

   These improvements have not come at the expense of scientific research. The National Science Foundation will receive an increase of $362 million, an 8.2 percent increase over 2001, an increase that is distributed broadly by research category and includes adequate funds for major new science initiatives.

   For NASA, a 3.5 percent increase is provided. While I continue to have concerns that we are not providing NASA the resources needed to undertake the missions that have been identified for that agency, I would suggest that this minimal increase is a recognition of the budget constraints we face. I believe that we as a Congress should look closely at NASA in the next year and provide additional resources to that agency.

   This conference report is the product of a balancing act, and I believe that we have done a good job ensuring that the needs of each agency are met. I ask for the body's support.

   Mr. Speaker, I reserve the balance of my time.

   Mr. WALSH. Mr. Speaker, I yield 5 minutes to the gentleman from Florida (Mr. YOUNG), the distinguished chairman of the Committee on Appropriations.

   Mr. YOUNG of Florida. Mr. Speaker, I rise, number one, to congratulate Chairman WALSH for having done such a tremendous job in taking a 302(b) allocation that was not nearly as much as these agencies could have used but in providing a bill that really gets the job done. He has done an outstanding job. He could not have had a better partner than the gentleman from West Virginia (Mr. MOLLOHAN). They worked together in just a very strong, bipartisan fashion. Their staff support was equally bipartisan, and we produced a good bill. And so I would hope that we would get a very good vote for this conference report.

   In addition, Mr. Speaker, I would like to make an announcement to the Members that we are nearing the end of the appropriations process for fiscal year 2002. I think everyone would breathe a deep sigh of relief over that, especially the chairman of the committee.

   Briefly, we have produced two major supplemental bills since we received the details of the President's budget on May 9, which was about 2 months later than we normally get it, but I think we all understand the lateness of the new administration being put in place. But we were 2 months late in actually getting the detailed numbers that we need as appropriators to work these bills. But since that time on May 9, we have produced the two supplementals that were major supplementals through the entire process and to the President.

   We have also concluded all of our work on the Interior appropriations bill, the Military Construction appropriations bill, the Energy and Water appropriations bill, the Legislative Branch appropriations bill, the Treasury-Postal appropriations bill, and today we will conclude our business on the VA-HUD bill that is before us.

   Also today we received unanimous consent to take up the appropriations bill for Agriculture, to file it by midnight tomorrow night; we will complete the conference on Commerce, Justice and State later today; we appointed the conferees for the District of Columbia appropriations bill; and we appointed the conferees for the Labor, HHS and Education appropriations bill. We hope to conclude those conferences by the middle of next week and hopefully will be on the floor before or by Friday of next week.

   I might say, Mr. Speaker, that part of the slowdown here also has been that the other body, while its appropriations committee had reported out most of its bills, the other body held appropriations bills for a long time and did not pass them. And so we cannot go to conference on an appropriations bill until the other body passes it as well. But while the committee did pass out its bills, the full Senate did not take them up.

   We still have to do the Transportation conference, and there is one issue that is delaying us there, and that has to do with a difference of opinion between several Members of the other body and the President of the United States on the issue of trucks entering the United States from a foreign land. That has to be resolved yet, but we think that will happen also by the end of next week.

   The major outstanding issue, having said all of this is the Defense bill. It has yet to be done in the Committee and in the House, but I believe we will also have it through the House by Friday of next week. I do not think we will be able to have it conferenced by Friday of next week. The Defense bill itself has been completed for over a week, but we are using it as a vehicle to deal with last $20 billion of the second supplemental we did.

   This gets a little confusing and complicated, but on the $40 billion supplemental that we passed in the days after the terrorist attacks, if Members recall, we required that the last $20 billion of that Act actually go through the appropriations process once the President decided how he would like to use that $20 billion to respond to the terrorist attack of September 11. So while the Defense bill has been completed for about 10 days, we have been

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   Again, Mr. Speaker, because of the good work of members of the Committee on Appropriations on both sides of the aisle and the support that we received by both sides of the aisle on our appropriations bills this year, again I say, we can breathe a sigh of relief. We are reaching the end of that process for fiscal year 2002.

   Mr. MOLLOHAN. Mr. Speaker, I am pleased to yield 4 minutes to the distinguished gentleman from Michigan (Mr. BONIOR), the minority whip.

   Mr. BONIOR. I thank my colleague for yielding me this time.

   Mr. Speaker, first of all, congratulations to my colleague from West Virginia and my colleague from New York for the job that they did on the bill. Today is a historic day for public health and safety and it is a great day for the environment. Today, after a decade-long battle, we are finally lowering the level of arsenic in our drinking water . The United States will finally join the rest of the developed world in cleaning up its drinking water .

[Time: 12:30]

   Arsenic is a toxic poison that can cause lung cancer, bladder cancer, skin cancer; and according to the National Academy of Sciences, the threat to our children and pregnant women and anyone who drinks this carcinogen is even greater than we had originally thought. Arsenic simply has no place in our drinking water .

   I am very pleased that the VA-HUD conference report includes language that I offered on this floor to cut the level of arsenic by 80 percent without any further delay. EPA now cannot drag its feet any longer. We need to get to 10 parts per billion immediately. Not next year, not next month, but now. EPA should never have blocked this ruling in the first place. In fact, based on the science, we should actually go lower than 10 parts per billion to adequately protect the public health.

   Because of the actions we are taking here today, millions of Americans will be drinking cleaner water . This is a serious problem in my home State of Michigan. There are only four other States that have a higher exposure to arsenic in the entire Nation. According to the EPA, we have 367,000 Michigan residents in 176 communities who may be drinking water containing arsenic in amounts higher than 10 parts per billion. We are finally taking action to protect those people.

   I want to thank those who helped bring this victory about, including those cosponsors of my original amendment in the House: the gentleman from California (Mr. WAXMAN), the gentleman from Ohio (Mr. BROWN), the gentleman from Wisconsin (Mr. OBEY), and the gentleman from Michigan (Mr. KILDEE). Senator Boxer in the other body led the fight. My good friend, the gentleman from Michigan (Mr. DINGELL), was a steadfast supporter to get the strongest possible language that we could get in conference.

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