Political Quotes

“I'd encourage our colleagues to vote ``no'' on this amendment. The amendment implies that the President is negotiating some secret deal with Russia that would weaken U.S. security for the ideological pursuit of nuclear weapons reductions. Now, we know the President has the constitutional power to conduct formulations, and Congress has the authority to provide advice and consent to ratification and to deny funding for any implementation of any treaty. The administration has provided regular briefings and has supplied senior State and Defense officials over here to our committee and to the House Foreign Affairs Committee and informed us on talks on Russia. This amendment also is not necessary. The bill already contains numerous provisions asking for information on U.S.-Russian missile defense cooperation and blocking nuclear weapons reductions. So I'd ask my colleagues to oppose this amendment. I reserve the balance of my time.”