Bob Menendez: “I know it is an election year and this type of partisan ploy is expected, but still I find it incredibly difficult to…”

“I know it is an election year and this type of partisan ploy is expected, but still I find it incredibly difficult to understand how my balanced budget minded, fiscally conservative Republican colleagues, who shut down the Federal Government to save the future of our children, can come before this House and stretch out their hands for $1 million to fund a special committee for 6 months when its oversight work could easily be done by the House Committee on International Relations, of which I am a member. It is the right committee on substance, on policy and process as it relates to this issue. The most expensive subcommittee of the House Committee on International Relations does not spend in 1 year what the Republicans are proposing to spend on this committee for 6 months. Mr. Speaker, we can get to the truth that the majority leader spoke of without more government and more tax dollars. In truth, the genesis of the Bosnian crisis and the arms issue goes back to the Bush administration, and if we are going to have this committee, I hope we bring out members of that former administration to discuss what they did and did not know and what they did and did not do.”