Howard Berman: “If the situation were not so tragic, it would be humorous. We are watching the Republican majority with the presentation…”

“If the situation were not so tragic, it would be humorous. We are watching the Republican majority with the presentation of this bill snatch defeat out of the jaws of victory on two of the issues they have fought the most for over the past 2 rac{1}{2} years. First is the foreign aid authorization bill. After 3 rac{1}{2} or 4 days of relatively amiable discourse, reasonably intelligent debate, a bipartisan consensus was formed that passed out an authorization bill that supported much of the administration's key priorities and at the same time dealt with many of the strong concerns of the Republican majority on the committee, a vote that included every single Democratic member of that committee and the vast majority of the Republican members of that committee, in marked contrast to the way the process had transpired 2 years before, a process which produced veto and veto and veto and no law. From that bill, which by the way, lest my colleagues think this was tilted too much to the minority or too much to the administration, that bill, which came out of committee, was referenced in the letter signed by Henry Kissinger, James Baker, General Colin L. Powell, George Shultz, Lawrence Eagleburger, Brent Scowcroft, and Alexander Haig, key national security advisors and Secretaries of State for the last three Republican administrations.”