[Congressional Record Volume 146, Number 39 (Monday, April 3, 2000)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Page E479]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




             2000 EMERGENCY SUPPLEMENTAL APPROPRIATIONS ACT

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                               speech of

                           HON. FLOYD SPENCE

                           of south carolina

                    in the house of representatives

                       Wednesday, March 29, 2000

       The House in Committee of the Whole House on the State of 
     the Union had under consideration the bill (H.R. 3908) making 
     emergency supplemental appropriations for the fiscal year 
     ending September 30, 2000, and for other purposes:

  Mr. SPENCE. Mr. Chairman, I rise in strong support of the Lewis-
Spence-Murtha-Skelton amendment.
  I want to thank the gentleman from California (Mr. Lewis), the 
gentleman from Missouri (Mr. Skelton), and the gentleman from 
Pennsylvania (Mr. Murtha) for making this amendment a bipartisan 
amendment. We could not do it without them.
  There are not many people here on this floor this evening, but, 
frankly, the folks that are here, are not the people that I am trying 
to reach. I am trying to reach the people who are in the offices 
listening and the American people on C-Span that might see this.
  I am going to say what I said at our Republican conference this 
morning. And, I will say it to everyone now. We are considering 
emergency supplemental legislation. In prior years, we have talked 
about supplementals, emergency supplementals, real emergency 
supplementals. This is a real, real emergency supplemental from the 
standpoint of defense.
  I know we all have different priorities. We have talked about them a 
lot today. We are going to continue to talk about them--all the things 
that are in this supplemental bill, drugs and all the rest.
  But, I want to remind everyone, we would not be here as a free 
society, secure and prosperous, if it had not been made possible by our 
military, starting with the revolution when we gained our independence. 
Since that time, we have had World War I and World War II, big threats. 
Our forefathers, our fathers, our grandfathers, and their families 
sacrificed their lives and their health to make sure that we are free 
and secure, and to create this environment that permits us to discuss 
these matters as they come along.
  There is a poem that is often attributed to General MacArthur, and 
also to a priest that served with the General, Father Denis Edward 
O'Brien, U.S. Marine Corps, that I believe sums up just how much we owe 
the freedom and liberty that we so often take for granted, to the 
military. It goes like this:

     It is the soldier, not the reporter, Who has given us freedom 
           of the press.
     It is the soldier, not the poet, Who has given us freedom of 
           speech.
     It is the soldier, not the campus organizer. Who has given us 
           the freedom to demonstrate.
     It is the soldier, who salutes the flag, Who serves beneath 
           the flag, And whose coffin is draped by the flag, Who 
           allows the protester to burn the flag.

  Some people these days talk about the arms race. Many people say we 
spend money on defense than all the rest of the world put together. We 
have to. Who else is able to do it? We are the only ones. To save 
ourselves, we have to save the rest of the world along with it.
  The Cold War is over, yes. I agree. But, President Reagan, with a 
Democrat Congress, helped to restore the military and that is what 
brought about the end of the Cold War--we beat the Soviet Union in the 
arms race. They could not keep up. They could not do it any longer. 
That is what ended the Cold War. Today, we face a similar situation. We 
have more threats today than ever before. We still have the nuclear 
threat from now Russia, but now we have China and North Korea and all 
the rest of them, and we are not prepared to defend against those 
threats.
  We also have other threats now--weapons of mass destruction other 
than nuclear--chemical, biological, from these same countries and 
lesser countries. This threat is out there, and we are unprepared to 
deal with it.
  Finally, today we are no longer strong enough to fight one 
conventional war. Kosovo was a wakeup call. We devoted all of our air 
assets, just about everything, to that air war. And what would have 
happened if something big had broken out somewhere else in the world? 
We could not have handled it, certainly not without a large loss of 
life.
  Now it is our turn. We have to step up to the plate. We have to make 
sure that our country is free, first of all, and allows us the 
environment to consider these other priorities, which I can sympathize 
with. The administration, I will give them credit, has come a long way, 
but not nearly enough. This amendment is going to help a whole lot, but 
still not enough.
  I will conclude with a personal note: Twelve years ago, God gave me a 
second chance at life when I received a double lung transplant. God has 
clearly seen fit to leave me here on earth for some reason. I have 
dedicated this extension of my life to doing the best I can to preserve 
our freedom. But, I cannot do it alone. Our military cannot do it 
alone. We need your help. We need everyone's help. When the time comes, 
I want to be able to say, ``I've done my best.'' I want you to be able 
to say the same.

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