David Price: “there are only 147 days left in this fiscal year. This ought to be a time when we come together with bipartisan resolve…”

“there are only 147 days left in this fiscal year. This ought to be a time when we come together with bipartisan resolve to deal with three urgent crises that we could not have anticipated last September: the agricultural collapse in rural America, the devastation of Central America by Hurricanes Mitch and Georges, and the need to support our troops and the allied cause in Kosovo. The Republican majority, unfortunately, has sought to politicize the NATO operation in the Balkans, withholding support for it last week, amid well-publicized arm-twisting, and now this week voting to double the funding for it! In so doing, the majority hopes to use the NATO campaign to leverage funding for unrelated military purposes. We should reject partisan gamesmanship that toys with the lives of our troops and the refugees, that trivializes the dignity of our rural citizens, and that belittles the suffering of the people in Central America. We should, instead, adopt the Obey substitute. The Obey amendment is well-crafted. It is responsible. It addresses the military and humanitarian needs in the Balkans, fully funding the Department of Defense's request.”