Political Quotes

“I share the gentleman's sentiments. I know that we both agree with the gentleman from New Jersey [Mr. Smith], the sponsor of the amendment, emotionally, in that we want to provide as much aid as we can. However, I think this amendment is counterproductive in that we have already cut the State Department personnel account furiously. As a matter of fact, the administration's request would have required a reduction of 350 people from the State Department's personnel accounts and the closing of 21 posts around the world. That was before we got hold of it. Our markup of the State Department accounts reduced the President's request another $40 million. And we are looking at double the proposed reductions. So if you want to administer this refugee and migration account, it ought to be done internally, because we just do not have the resources in the State Department to manage that kind of an operation. Neither do we have the authorization. So I would hope that the gentleman would reconsider his amendment because, if it is successful, the only other place that the salaries and expenses to run this program could come from would be out of the State Department regular accounts; and we have already slashed them unmercifully and perhaps there is even more to come.”