Bill Nelson: “I want to make sure I have in the Record why I had opposed the motion to invoke cloture on the motion to proceed to the…”

“I want to make sure I have in the Record why I had opposed the motion to invoke cloture on the motion to proceed to the Feingold bill, S. 2633. This Senator is certainly for a gradual withdrawal from Iraq. But the Feingold bill has a considerable pitfall because it starts the withdrawal within a certain period of time and cuts off the funding with the exception of allowing funding, for example--I am going to read--for ``Conducting targeted operations, limited in duration and scope, against members of al Qaeda and affiliated international terrorist organizations.'' In other words, the Feingold bill would allow funding to continue to conduct operations against al-Qaida, but only ``limited in duration and scope.'' I do not think we ought to limit the ability of the U.S. Government to go after al-Qaida in Iraq. Furthermore, this clause in the Feingold bill would allow funding to go not only against al-Qaida, ``limited in duration and scope,'' but also against ``affiliated international terrorist organizations.'' The word ``affiliated'' means affiliated to al-Qaida. There are a bunch of other terrorist organizations in the world we want to go after, and this limitation of funding would be only for those affiliated with al-Qaida. I do not want the Government of the United States limited in its ability to go after al-Qaida and then only those other terrorist organizations affiliated with al-Qaida. I have voted against the motion to invoke cloture.”