Newt Gingrich: “I very much agree with the last Member's comments about the need for bipartisanship and for working together. I would…”

“I very much agree with the last Member's comments about the need for bipartisanship and for working together. I would just say that next week if the defense authorization bill comes to the floor, we will have a chance to be bipartisan and to work together. There are a number of steps that have been taken recently which would place American troops under U.N. commanders. The Vice President said recently that what he wanted to extend condolences to the families who had lost loved ones in Iraq in the service of the United Nations. Mr. Speaker, there is a deep feeling on the part of the Clinton administration that the United States must subordinate itself to the United Nations in Bosnia and other places. I think when the defense authorization bill comes to the floor, there will be a bipartisan opportunity, which Republicans will take a lead role in, trying to offer some amendments that will make clear that American troops should serve under American commanders, that America should never be subordinated to a world talking organization, and that some very serious thinking has to go into the Clinton administration's pattern of spending American money not on American defense but transferring that money out of our defense to subsidize the United Nations which is clearly ineffective, which is clearly unable to get the job done, and which clearly does not understand and is incapable of leading the world to peace and to security.”