Jerry Lewis: “Mr. chairman, far be it from me to stand and defend the Russians' role in this international partnership. We asked them…”

“Mr. chairman, far be it from me to stand and defend the Russians' role in this international partnership. We asked them to participate with us and we sought the partnership as much as anybody. We have allies in Europe who are very much involved and committed to this partnership. Canada, the same. The Russians, for example, do contribute some 250,000 pounds of hardware to this project. That is a lot of rubles. In the meantime, there is not any doubt in my mind that the vision of America of man in space very much is intrigued with man's presence in space by way of a space station. Much of the public support for the work of NASA would indeed be on a very thinly based glacier of ice if it were not for that vision of man in space. Space station is a very important part of our international partnership that affects peace, but it also is fundamental to America's support for this kind of scientific as well as space activity. I urge a very strong no vote to the gentleman's amendment. Mr. Chairman, I yield back the balance of my time.”