Political Quotes

“I thank my friend for yielding. I want to say that I appreciate the bipartisan, hard work of Chairman Nunes and Ranking Member Schiff, but I want to bring to the House's attention recent reports that this bill makes drastic cuts in our so- called covert support to the moderate Syrian opposition. A headline in the Saturday Washington Post read: ``Secret CIA effort in Syria faces large funding cut.'' If these reports are true, just as the moderate Syrian forces may be starting to make progress, especially in the south, then I am afraid we may be making a big mistake. Unfortunately, most Members of the House don't know for certain if this legislation will reduce our support for the moderate opposition. Those funding decisions are made behind closed doors. And that is why I believe this bill is not the right place for us to be making decisions that have a major impact on our Syria strategy. I have no doubt that Chairman Nunes and Ranking Member Schiff are determined to get the intelligence piece of our Syria response right, but this is not merely an intelligence issue, and our overall strategy in Syria goes far beyond what is included in any covert program. I believe we shouldn't be dealing with this problem in a piecemeal way. As we have been doing in the Foreign Affairs Committee on a bipartisan basis, I urge my colleagues to take a step back, look at the big picture, and address our Syria policy in a way that makes sense and involves all the relevant players.…”