Arlen Specter: “I am constrained to oppose the amendment because in constructing this overall bill for $91.7 billion, in collaboration…”

“I am constrained to oppose the amendment because in constructing this overall bill for $91.7 billion, in collaboration with the ranking Democrat on the subcommittee, we have juggled some 300 programs. If we are going to add a very substantial amount of additional funding to education, which we have some $2.3 billion over last year, and if we are to add $2 billion for the National Institutes of Health, and to have an initiative against juvenile violence, it is a matter of the allocation of priorities. The comment has been made about the use of the tobacco funds. Those are very substantial sums of money, some $203 billion over a number of years. I fought on the Senate floor to try to bring some of those tobacco funds to the Federal Government so we would have more moneys available.”