Louise Slaughter: “today, my colleagues from New York and I are on this floor fighting to guarantee that this Congress and the…”

“today, my colleagues from New York and I are on this floor fighting to guarantee that this Congress and the administration fulfill the promise made to us in law. We find ourselves working against an inexplicably stealth campaign by the White House to delay, perhaps indefinitely, the needed aid to our city. In public, the administration officials make statements like, ``An agreement is an agreement is an agreement.'' But in private they have made it known to the House leadership that the President would veto any spending bill with New York's funds in it, forcing the Committee on Appropriations to abandon ongoing bipartisan discussions to craft such an amendment. In public, the President vows that New York will receive everything it was promised; but in private, Vice President Cheney lobbied members of the majority to vote against the efforts to allocate this aid. I am at a complete loss as to why the administration would wage this underground campaign to deny New York the needed funding in its hour of need. If there is a legitimate and reasonable explanation, we would like to hear it.”