Unlike other appropriations bills. which can entail hundreds of amendments. there were only seven points of difference between the House and the Senate. none of them major. The conference report comes back to the House looking remarkably similar to the bill passed by the House on May 9 by a vote of 384 to 25. It deals almost exclusively with the costs of the relief effort underway for the Kurds and other refugees expelled from their homes through the atrocities of Saddam Hussein. as well as other recent disasters around the world. As in the House passed bill. none of the funding in the bill entails new moneyinstead the money comes out of interest on the Defense cooperation account. the Persian Gulf regional defense fund. and prior appropriations. The major conference issue was whether to fund the $85 million increase over the request for refugee assistance from interest on the Defense cooperation account or from rescissions of fiscal year 1991 foreign aid appropriations. The administration preferred that it all come from interest. and that is what is in the conference report. although I still have some reservations on that one. The actual language states that the funds can come from contributions from foreign allies and/or interest. but it allows complete flexibility to the administration to take it all out of interest. which is what they are expected to do.
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