Jim Inhofe: “tonight we are going to be voting on some amendments that are very significant, and I want to take an opportunity to…”

“tonight we are going to be voting on some amendments that are very significant, and I want to take an opportunity to express some views concerning those amendments. One is going to be offered to refund to its 1995 fiscal year level--I believe it is $415 million--the Legal Services Corporation. This is a place we should draw the line, go back. In fact, this is one area where the Senate came out with a better proposal than the House came out with. It is my understanding the House suggested reducing the funding to $278 million. The Senate would reduce it down to $210 million and have that block granted out to the States. I really believe the Legal Services Corporation was conceived as a part of the Great Society program, understandably, perhaps, at the time, to offer legal services to the poor. However, over a period of years it has turned into an agency that is trying to reshape the political and legal and social fabric of America.”