William Helms: “Mr. President, S. 1745, as introduced and reported by the Armed Services Committee, contains, in my judgment, several…”

“Mr. President, S. 1745, as introduced and reported by the Armed Services Committee, contains, in my judgment, several significant provisions falling clearly within the primary jurisdiction of the Foreign Relations Committee. And I have disclosed now my interest in that because I am chairman of the Foreign Relations Committee. I do not think there can be a clearer case of imposing upon the jurisdiction of the Foreign Relations Committee than section 1005 of the bill, entitled 'Use of Military-to-Military Contacts Funds for Professional Military Education and Training.' That is a lot of gobbledygook perhaps, but it is a provision that represents an obvious effort by some to commandeer a longstanding foreign policy instrument of the Department of State, that being the International Military Education and Training program known familiarly as IMET. Section 1005 of this bill does not even pretend to differ substantively from the existing IMET program.”