Jerry Lewis: “I rise with great hesitation in opposition to the amendment. Mr. Chairman, as I said at the outset, it is with great…”

“I rise with great hesitation in opposition to the amendment. Mr. Chairman, as I said at the outset, it is with great hesitation that I oppose my colleague's amendment for I know that his interest and concern are sincere. My concern is that I believe as we go forward with this measure we want to be very careful about the messages that we are sending from this well, that might be misinterpreted by Mr. Milosevic and his supporters. This amendment does not do what the sponsor alleges, in my view. Indeed, this amendment literally does nothing except perhaps create more bureaucracy. Let me explain. The President has submitted a budget regarding this war. As he has outlined his projections, I have a number of reservations that we have attempted to deal with as we have gone forward with this legislation. But, indeed, we have tried to be careful, to make sure that there is not misinterpretation of our intent. This amendment supposedly would take some $5.2 billion in the bill that we provided to pay for the cost of the Kosovo operation and apply it to other unspecified military readiness and munitions needs. But a close reading of the amendment reveals that all it does is require that before the $5.2 billion can be spent, the President must submit a budget request specifying a critical readiness or sustainability need, to include replacement of expended munitions.”