Dianne Feinstein: “I rise in strong opposition, and I hope it will be robust opposition, to the Dodd-McCain amendment, which would gut the…”

“I rise in strong opposition, and I hope it will be robust opposition, to the Dodd-McCain amendment, which would gut the narcotics certification process and replace it with absolutely nothing. Mr. President, I just heard the distinguished Senator say ``trust General McCaffrey.'' With all due respect to General McCaffrey, this is such a volatile and unpredictable area that it is impossible to know what to believe. It is understandable that General McCaffrey could stand before the world and say, ``I trust General Gutierrez Rebollo. He is an honest man.'' Whoops. The next thing we know, he is on the take. My goodness, how can you gut a process and replace it with nothing except trust when we have already found that trust to be wanting. Now, let me say for a moment, I want to divide my remarks into three parts. The first is foreign assistance and who should get foreign assistance as a product of this amendment. The second is a certification process and what it has actually done in Colombia. The third is Mexico postsummit and what has not happened. This debate is really about whether we should give foreign aid and support development loans to other nations with no strings attached even if we know that the leaders and government of the country do nothing to assist in stopping the flow of drugs to the United States.”