Political Quotes

“I regret that I am unable to support this conference report on H.R. 1561, the Foreign Relations Authorization Act, fiscal years 1996 and 1997. I recognize that House and Senate Republican conferees have attempted to find a middle-ground between the respective bills passed by each House and that this conference report is an improvement over the House-passed bill. Although there are some provisions in the bill that I support, I believe the bill is fundamentally flawed in four areas--reorganization of the foreign affairs agencies, funding for the Arms Control and Disarmament Agency and for our contributions to the United Nation, and American policy toward China. This bill requires the President to abolish one of the foreign affairs agencies--AID, USIA, or CDA. There is no doubt that this is an improvement over the original language in the House bill, which mandated the abolishment of all three of these agencies. However, this conference report falls far short of the Senate bill, which sought to force consolidation through savings rather than the mandatory abolition of agencies. The Senate bill preserved the President's constitutional right to determine how to organize those agencies which carry out the foreign policy directives of the President of the United States. The conference report takes that away.”