Dianne Feinstein: “Mr. President, I rise as a member of the Foreign Relations Committee to express my strong opposition to the conference…”

“Mr. President, I rise as a member of the Foreign Relations Committee to express my strong opposition to the conference report to accompany H.R. 1561, the State Department authorization bill. This bill has been the cause of much turmoil, as we all know. It began with the markup of a bill that the Democrats on the Foreign Relations Committee had no part in drafting, and that many felt contained an excessively far-reaching plan to eliminate three foreign affairs agencies: The Agency for International Development, the Arms Control and Disarmament Agency, and the U.S. Information Agency. When that bill reached the floor, Republicans were unable to invoke cloture on it. Meanwhile, the Senate was prevented from taking action to confirm 18 ambassadors, several hundred Foreign Service officer promotions, and to consider two critical arms control treaties--START II and the Chemical Weapons Convention.”