Tom Harkin: “I have indicated it would come out of star wars. Obviously, the appropriators can take it out of anywhere. If we take…”

“I have indicated it would come out of star wars. Obviously, the appropriators can take it out of anywhere. If we take the amendment of the Senator from Washington, it does not necessarily have to come out of furnishings. It can come out of something else across the board. My amendment, then, will send a strong signal to the Appropriations Committee about where our priorities are. Again, I do not have any real case to make for furnishings. I do not know what the situation is with furnishings. I suppose if you run an office, you have to have office equipment. I do know about the National Institutes of Health, though. I do know that they need equipment. They need lab equipment. They need proper furnishings to conduct their research, as do our extramural grants that go out to other universities. I suppose that would be included in that, too. But, again, my point is this: We have had a huge increase in the star wars budget this year. It has gone up by almost 30 percent over last year. Again, is that where our priorities are?”