Wendy Sherman: “Let me begin with a completely irrelevant digression on a completely different matter. Today it was announced that the…”

“Let me begin with a completely irrelevant digression on a completely different matter. Today it was announced that the United States will recognize the Libyan rebels as the legitimate Government of Libya. If that is true, we should make an immediate demand on that government that it use the $33 billion, or some portion thereof, of Qadhafi money that is frozen in the United States to reimburse the American taxpayer for all of the military actions and humanitarian actions we have taken for the benefit of the people of Libya--there is no reason that these actions should be done at the expense of the United States taxpayer--and that the real cost of our military actions in Libya should be calculated on the basis of full cost accounting, not the marginal cost accounting that has been used in press releases from the Pentagon. Now for my amendment. This amendment deals with the international programs carried out by the Department of Energy. It is in some ways a rival to, or an alternative to, the amendment presented by Mr. Harris last night. Mr. Harris' amendment would eliminate all of these programs with the exception of one and thus reduce roughly $6 million in costs. My amendment eliminates those programs that go to China while leaving the remaining programs. So if you don't want to see American taxpayer money used to benefit Chinese manufacturers, you have two alternatives. Maybe you'll vote for them both.…”