Joe Crowley: “I speak today to express my strong opposition to the back room deal that resulted in the FY 2000 Supplemental package…”

“I speak today to express my strong opposition to the back room deal that resulted in the FY 2000 Supplemental package being attached to the FY 2001 Military Construction Appropriations bill. As with H.R. 3908, the original House version of the FY 2000 Supplemental Bill, a major concern of mine regarding this legislation is that no authorization language was passed to allow Members the opportunity to argue for funding for projects important to them. As a Member of the Committee on International Relations and the Representative of the largest Colombian-American community in the U.S., I wanted to be involved in the development of our policy on Colombia. We should have developed a bill that would strike a balance between the needs of international concerns, such as Colombia, human rights and Kosova, and domestic spending priorities. I would have supported such a bill. Unfortunately, despite the passage of much improved legislation in the Senate; this bill does not appear to do that. Mr. Speaker, I say appear because I have not had the opportunity to read the Conference Report on the FY 2000 Supplemental. The backroom deal that negotiated this legislation circumvented the normal appropriations process and brought it directly to the floor without providing Members the opportunity to read and digest the legislation. I find this very troubling. This legislation provides billions of U.S. taxpayer dollars without real Congressional oversight.”