Rodney Frelinghuysen: “while there may be no desire by President Clinton and his Administration to recognize Congress' role in determining…”

“while there may be no desire by President Clinton and his Administration to recognize Congress' role in determining whether or not to deploy troops to Kosovo, we all know that their decision will require Congress to find the necessary dollars to pay for this mission. And there is no question that Congress will provide the necessary dollars to support our men and women in uniform. But we need to be prepared for the tough choices that lie ahead. Let's take the U.S. mission in Bosnia as an example. We have been in Bosnia for almost four years and there is still no end-date in sight. Yet, the Administration has not included funding for this mission in their budget until this year. This open-ended mission, while it has saved lives, it has also cost $19 billion to date. The Administration may be embarking on this mission in Kosovo to save lives and prevent open warfare in the Balkans, but we here in Congress will be responsible for making the tough decisions about how to pay for it. There is no money in the President's budget to pay for this deployment.”