James Traficant: “I voted for the Fowler bill. I do not support ground troops in Kosovo, but I do support our leaders in this Congress who…”

“I voted for the Fowler bill. I do not support ground troops in Kosovo, but I do support our leaders in this Congress who have imparted some wisdom here today. Many of them are appropriators and authorizers, and many times I take question with appropriators, but today they have given us fine counsel. My colleagues, we would trigger a veto by passing this amendment. The money would not get to the troops. As the gentleman from Florida (Mr. Young), the gentleman from California (Mr. Lewis), and the gentleman from Pennsylvania (Mr. Murtha) have stated, we will send unusual signals to Milosevic. That is not the way to proceed. I am going to vote ``no'' on this amendment for that reason and for the following reason, for anybody else who joined with Jim Traficant in supporting the gentlewoman from Florida (Mrs. Tillie Fowler) last week. Clearly, the President must come before us for authorization, but why should we tie the hands of our military and why should we not make available every option that we have? Today we are funding. Although funding is policy, let there be no mistake we have yet to address the total policy. In 1986, we were advised that a free and independent Kosovo should be recognized. We failed to do that. Now we reap the harvest of that mistake. We, today, must provide the money for our military; and we, today, must support the leaders who themselves do not want to see ground troops.”