James T. Callahan: “Mr. Speaker, this issue was thoroughly debated yesterday when the Congress chose to instruct the conferees on the…”

“Mr. Speaker, this issue was thoroughly debated yesterday when the Congress chose to instruct the conferees on the foreign operations bill to include Mexico City language. I support Mexico City language, although I opposed, in a way, the Congress telling us that we ought to be forced to do authorization business in an appropriation bill. Generally, the arguments that take place on the floor are just the opposite. But since the Congress saw fit, by a great majority, to instruct the conferees on the Committee on Appropriations, sitting and languishing for a couple of weeks in conference is the authorization bill where this issue should be addressed. It is our understanding that even since yesterday, when the Committee on Appropriations was instructed to act on a policy matter, Senator Helms has indicated and some of the Members of the House Committee on International Relations indicated that they are not going to be able to maintain this in the conference on the bill that it should be in. So what this does is just simply transfer the responsibility to the party of responsibility. I do not think there is much need this afternoon to go into the merits and demerits of the pro-life issue or pro-choice issues or the population-control issues. The issue has already been addressed by this House, voted on by this House.”