[Congressional Record Volume 144, Number 147 (Thursday, October 15, 1998)]
[House]
[Page H10923]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                           FOREIGN AID BUDGET

  (Mr. CALLAHAN asked and was given permission to address the House for 
1 minute and to revise and extend his remarks.)
  Mr. CALLAHAN. Mr. Speaker, sometimes it is amazing to me the memory 
of some of our colleagues about we did nothing this year.
  One of my responsibilities in the House is to Chair the Subcommittee 
on Foreign Operations, Export Financing and Related Programs, how much 
money we are going to give the President for foreign aid. It is not a 
pleasant job.
  But just to remind my colleagues, we did our job. The President 
wanted $13.5 billion. We did our job, but we would not give him all he 
wanted. We passed the bill through the House, we passed it through all 
the committees, we passed it through the Senate, but the President 
said, ``There is no sense in sending it down here, because I will veto 
it if you do not give me another $1 billion.''
  Well, we felt like we had better things to do with that $1 billion. 
But the President said no, and there we were faced with the possibility 
of shutting the government down or giving him his $1 billion.
  So it was not that we did not do our job, because we did everything 
we were supposed to do, except the President refused to sign the bill, 
telling us that unless we gave $1 billion more, that he was going to 
shut the government down.

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