William R. Richardson: “This bill, nonetheless, still needs to be defeated. It has gone through a revision. It is better than it was when we…”

“This bill, nonetheless, still needs to be defeated. It has gone through a revision. It is better than it was when we first were presented with it, but it still should be vetoed, principally because it infringes on the President's right to conduct foreign policy. It micromanages foreign policy. It forces the consolidation of agencies. It basically tells the President that he has to eliminate agencies to conduct foreign policy. Mr. Speaker, it also authorizes spending levels that would force other organizations in the international diplomacy area to retreat. In other words, we are retreating as internationalists through some of the spending provisions in this bill. Plus, the bill fails to provide necessary flexibility for the administration to manage all of these agencies that this bill is ordering virtually be dismantled. The bill also hurts in very key areas in the funding levels: Arms control and nonproliferation, international peacekeeping, international organizations, public diplomacy, sustainable development. What this is going to cause is a severe reduction in force of highly skilled personnel at several of our foreign affairs agencies. Mr. Speaker, the bill messes with our China policy.”