Political Quotes

“included within this omnibus appropriations bill are two important pieces of legislation related to foreign policy. The first, produced on a bipartisan basis in the Foreign Relations Committee, is the ``Foreign Affairs Reform and Restructuring Act,'' which involves the institutional structure of, and funding for, the foreign affairs agencies of the U.S. government. The second bill is legislation necessary to implement the Chemical Weapons Convention, a treaty approved by the Senate in April 1997. The Foreign Affairs Reform and Restructuring Act is not perfect, and unfortunately it differs in one critical respect from the original bill approved by the Senate 16 months ago. I say ``unfortunately'' because this bill does not contain a single dime for our UN arrears. Last year, Chairman Helms and I agreed on a proposal to authorize the payment of $926 million in arrears to the United Nations, conditioned on a series of reforms in that body. The Senate approved the Helms-Biden legislation twice in 1997, first by a vote of 90-5 in June, then by a voice vote in November. The obstacle to making good on our commitments to the United Nations? A small minority of members in the other body, who have insisted that our arrears payments to the United Nations should be held hostage to an unrelated issue regarding family planning.”