[Congressional Record Volume 145, Number 39 (Thursday, March 11, 1999)]
[House]
[Page H1174]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




       URGING SPEAKER NOT TO ALLOW VOTE ON TROOPS IN KOSOVO TODAY

  (Mr. McDERMOTT asked and was given permission to address the House 
for 1 minute.)
  Mr. McDERMOTT. Madam Speaker, the House of Representatives has become 
like a scene from Alice in Wonderland. Yesterday in the Committee on 
Ways and Means we were asked to bring out a bill by the Speaker with a 
recommendation that it do not pass because the Speaker wants it brought 
to the floor but does not intend to vote for it. Today, even more 
amazingly, we have a foreign policy issue where the President of the 
United States and the Secretary of State have asked that it not be 
voted on now while the peace negotiations in Kosovo are proceeding. Yet 
the Speaker brings it to the floor intending not to vote for it, and he 
is third in succession in the United States Government. It is the 
President, the Vice President and the Speaker of the House; the third 
most important man in the country is running foreign policy here while 
we are putting at risk our soldiers in Kosovo.
  Now I ask you, Mr. Speaker, do not bring this issue to a vote today. 
It is irresponsible, it should not be done, it puts our soldiers at 
risk, and those of us who lived through the Vietnam era say do not do 
this again.

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