Political Quotes

“I have a statement relating to an amendment I had intended to offer concerning the Global Environment Facility, which I have decided not to offer in the interest of finishing action on this bill. There is strong, bipartisan support for the GEF and I hope we can find additional funds for it later in this session. Mr. President, this bill contains $47 million to pay a portion of our arrears to the Global Environment Facility. An amendment I had planned to offer would provide an additional $145 million, which would cover our outstanding arrears which currently total $192 million. Unfortunately, there is no money in the bill to pay our FY 1999 contribution to the GEF. The Balanced Budget Act provides for an automatic adjustment of the discretionary budget caps to accommodate these additional arrears, so my amendment would not require an offset or any additional budget authority. Mr. President, if we are going to provide $47 million toward the arrears we owe the GEF, we should provide the whole amount. There is no reason not to do it. That was one of the purposes of the Balanced Budget agreement. It does not require additional budget authority. But if we miss this chance, we will make it virtually impossible to pay these arrears later on when we no longer have the benefit of the automatic adjustment under the Balanced Budget Act. The GEF is the world's largest environmental organization. It has enjoyed bipartisan support in the Congress for years.”