[Congressional Record Volume 142, Number 125 (Thursday, September 12, 1996)]
[House]
[Page H10348]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                       CONSULTATION IS IMPORTANT

  (Mr. DORNAN asked and was given permission to address theHouse for 1 
minute and to revise and extend his remarks.)
  Mr. DORNAN. Mr. Speaker, if the gentleman from Pennsylvania [Mr. 
Weldon] wants to stand tight, I will yield him some time, even though 
it is only a minute.
  I am going to do a one-hour special order on supporting the troops. I 
am wearing the pin, air force fighter pilot here is wearing the pin of 
the First Armored Division, which is not an armored division anymore. 
It is now light infantry in Bosnia, because all our tanks are up in 
Germany. And that was done without total consultation with this House.
  Consultation is important. I served 3 weeks while Jerry Ford was 
President, 4 years of Carter, 8 years of Reagan, 4 years of Bush, and 
even though the timing was not timely sometimes, always there was 
consultation with the gang of 8: the two Intelligence Committee 
chairmen, the 2 Armed Services Committee chairmen, the 2 Foreign 
Affairs or International Relations chairmen.
  This is just God awful what is happening here. And everybody in 
uniform knows this chairman supports them, so I do not have to 
apologize for that.
  I demand constitutional authority of this House over men and women 
going into combat. And the minimum we should get is what we have had 
ever since World War II: consultation. That is what crossing the beach 
means: full support with the elected Senators and Representatives of 
the men and women in uniform; being consulted in this Chamber.

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