Byron Dorgan: “I take the floor to withdraw an amendment, but I will not withdraw it for the moment. I will say a few words and then…”

“I take the floor to withdraw an amendment, but I will not withdraw it for the moment. I will say a few words and then ask that the amendment be withdrawn. I do not need consent to do that as sponsor of the amendment because the yeas and nays have not yet been ordered. If there were a high school or college student listening, I think it would be a good lesson for them, particularly if they are interested in political science, to understand where we are at this moment from a parliamentary standpoint and why I am withdrawing the amendment I offered yesterday. Incidentally, this will not be the last my colleagues see of this amendment. We have had it on the floor before. It has been passed by the Senate before, as a matter of fact, dropped in conference. We will not have an opportunity to vote on it now because of the parliamentary circumstances. So let me describe what it is. First of all, the amendment is germane and relevant to this appropriations bill. I have the right and did offer an amendment yesterday that prohibits the expenditure of funds in this appropriations bill by an organization called OFAC, the Office of Foreign Assets Control, which is a relatively small Federal office deep in the bowels of the catacombs of the Treasury Department. The job of the Office of Foreign Assets Control is to try to track down and intercept the money that supports terrorism, to go find the money that supports Osama bin Laden, to go find the money that supports terrorism.…”