William Helms: “this, according to Annex H--Streamlining the Policy Process of the U.S. State Department, from State 2000, which, as I…”

“this, according to Annex H--Streamlining the Policy Process of the U.S. State Department, from State 2000, which, as I said earlier, is a January 1993 report from the office of management task force. That report recommended a new decrease--yes, I said it correctly; it recommended a decrease in the bureau positions or bureau-equivalent positions. Read the amendment. I am not even saying a decrease. I am saying to hold it where it is. I am not micromanaging anything. I am just saying let us not push this debt any higher. As the administration requested, the task force did not recommend an increase in positions as this bill provides, nor did the task force recommend a 33-percent increase in Assistant Secretary positions. This amendment, Mr. President, eliminates layering, and it eliminates bureaucratic growth. I say again that it is not exactly correct to get up and say this amendment is against full participation in world trade. If you turn our businessmen loose from a lot of the bureaucratic controls, we will see how they function. But never a day passes that I am not in contact with somebody overseas, seeing if I cannot get somebody in the door. Most of the time, I do not talk with the Ambassador. I talk with the Department of Commerce or sometimes the Treasury Department representative in the embassy in question. The Senate can do what it pleases, of course, but I want it to vote on the amendment as it is, not as Senator Kerry described it. I yield the floor.”