Political Quotes

“I will tell you the concern I have about this amendment. If you remember, the subcommittee on defense, as it was called then, is the one that funded this initially. This was not funded or authorized; they asked us to fund it in a supplemental. We put several hundred million dollars in. We put very strict interpretations on the language about how it could be spent, because we knew of the concern in the House about how this money should be spent. I appreciate what the gentleman from New York is trying to do, but everything I have seen, and I had great concern about this amendment initially, is that this program has been successful. They are demilitarizing nuclear weapons. I would hope we are not trying to interfere in the Soviet elections because I think that would backfire in our case. And I would hope that we would base our decision on the merits of whether this is working or not. Everything I have seen, from Secretary Perry, is that it is working. We may need to make some changes. We made need to make some sort of certification. But I think the certification that is required in this amendment by the gentleman from New York, which has entirely good intentions, I think goes too far. So I would hope at some point we could come up with adequate restrictions but certainly not this kind of a certification. I ask the Members to vote against the Solomon amendment at this point and see if we cannot maybe in conference work something out.”