Cliff Stearns: “I was down in Mexico last weekend when the headlines appeared in the newspaper and President Zedillo said that the…”

“I was down in Mexico last weekend when the headlines appeared in the newspaper and President Zedillo said that the sovereignty of Mexico was at stake. What became apparent to me is that this country (Mexico) would react very unfavorably to a motion to decertify. I think the motion that the gentleman from Illinois [Mr. Hastert] has outlined is an able compromise that we should all get behind, particularly on this side of the aisle. For those Members who are considering that this is not a compromise, it is a compromise, because we could get something that could be much more damaging to economic progress in Mexico and to their feeling that their integrity is being questioned. There is no doubt we could improve our relationships, improve our drug programs between the two countries. We need to improve our drug program here too. So I pose this question to all my colleagues. How does the money get from the people who use drugs here in the United States back to the Mexican drug cartels? Does the United States not have a level of responsibility here? These are huge sums of money, billions of dollars. Mr. Speaker, I honestly think the best solution is to vote for the Hastert amendment.”