Political Quotes

“What the Skelton amendment does is give an absolute blank check. Let me make it very, very clear. The language of the bill does not snatch defeat from the jaws of victory. Indeed, nothing in the language of the bill would in any way hamper the peacekeeping effort or the effort of our troops. What the language of the bill does, which the gentleman from Missouri (Mr. Skelton) would like to strip out, is to say that the Congress has a proper role in deciding what our expenditures in support of the operations in Kosovo and in Yugoslavia ought to be. It says that, in subsection (a), the President cannot spend these monies appropriated for other purposes in Kosovo. But it says in subsection (b) that the President has to, instead, come back to the Congress and ask for a supplemental appropriation in which he specifies what he wants for the operation in Kosovo. That is perfectly logical, and I defend the product of the committee. It makes sense. It defines the proper policy and gives the Congress the role it ought to have. But here is the problem with the Skelton language. The Skelton language would delete subsection (a), taking away the prohibition, giving the President the ability to do what he wanted to do with those funds.”