Political Quotes

“I first of all I want to commend the gentleman from New York (Mr. Solomon) for his rigorous and correct defense of an underfunded defense bill. What bothers me more than anything is the manner in which this occurred. The Committee on International Relations, every year since I have been here, which has been going on 6 years, will be presented with a petition from the Department of the Navy in the form of a bill for the sale or exchange or gift of ships. And about four years ago there was a hearing going on and somebody came from the Department of the Navy with a list of 10 ships that they were going to give away. And I asked the Navy, I said, have you ever thought about selling or leasing these ships? And they said, well, you know, that is a pretty good idea. So the Navy pulled the bill. A couple months later, they were back before the Committee on International Relations, this time with a bill that would sell or lease 10 ships with a net to the American people of $485 million. That provision that occurred every year, I believe, in either the State Department authorization or the foreign ops bill became known as the Manzullo amendment.”