Benjamin Gilman: “I am pleased to offer this en bloc amendment which represents a bipartisan agreement with the administration on how to…”

“I am pleased to offer this en bloc amendment which represents a bipartisan agreement with the administration on how to implement the contentious issue of reorganizing and streamlining our Nation's foreign affairs agencies. This bipartisan agreement is the result of lengthy hours of negotiation, and I want to stress to my Republican colleagues that we have not capitulated on any of the key issues of concern to all of us. This bill still eliminates two agencies, and it does so under a strict timetable that will not permit the abolition of agencies to be indefinitely postponed. Specifically, Mr. Chairman, this amendment mandates that the Arms Control and Disarmament Agency and the International Development Cooperation Agency will be abolished by no later than October 1, 1998. It further mandates that the U.S. Information Agency will be abolished and the Agency for International Development will be partially folded into the State Department by no later than October 1, 1999. There is no waiver, no escape clause, no smoke and mirrors. The agencies will be abolished.”