[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 153 (2007), Part 17]
[Senate]
[Pages 24037-24038]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                   FOREIGN OPERATIONS APPROPRIATIONS

  Mr. LEAHY. Mr. President, last Thursday, September 6, after less than 
12 hours of debate, the Senate passed by a vote of 81 to 12 the fiscal 
year 2008 State, Foreign Operations appropriations bill. I think it was 
the shortest amount of time we have taken to debate and pass this bill. 
I also think that on the whole we can be satisfied with the outcome. It 
is a bipartisan bill, and while neither I nor Senator Gregg, the 
ranking member of the subcommittee who played an indispensable role in 
getting it done, supports every provision in the bill, that is the 
nature of the process.
  I also know there are things in this bill the administration supports 
and things they don't like. I would remind them that our allocation was 
$700 million below the President's budget, and the President 
underfunded a number of programs that have strong bipartisan support--
the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, TB and malaria, to give one example. I 
would hope the White House would recognize that we tried hard to fund 
not only the President's priorities

[[Page 24038]]

but also the requests of Senators of both parties. This is, as 
sometimes the White House needs to be reminded, a government of equal 
branches.
  Senate conferees were named immediately after final passage, and I 
look forward to sitting down with the House to finish this bill so we 
can send it to the President for signature as soon as possible.
  Mr. President, the last vote on the State, Foreign Operations bill 
did not occur until late at night, and Senators were anxious to go 
home. I want to take this opportunity to again thank Senator Gregg and 
his staff, Paul Grove, minority clerk for the subcommittee, whose good 
humor and penchant for thoroughness and bipartisanship have served the 
committee extremely well. I also want to thank Michele Wymer, who 
joined the subcommittee's minority staff this year. Michele has been a 
pleasure to work with. She did a superb job last week on the floor 
keeping track of the flurry of amendments.
  On the majority side, I want to thank Kate Eltrich, who for the past 
5 years has handled the State Department Operations appropriations. 
Kate's budgetary skills, dating from her time at OMB during the Clinton 
administration, are a great asset to the subcommittee. She has done an 
excellent job and is someone whose judgment I have great confidence in. 
Nikole Manatt joined the subcommittee staff earlier this year, and she 
has already distinguished herself as energetic, willing and capable of 
taking on any project, and is a pleasure to work with. J.P. Dowd, my 
legislative director, spent most of last Thursday on the Senate floor 
helping out in more ways than I can count. I want to thank Tim Rieser, 
the majority clerk, who has worked for the Senate for 22 years, either 
as a staff member in my office or, since 1989, for the Appropriations 
Committee. Tim was my lead staff member on this bill. Tim and Paul 
Grove have worked together to draft these bills year after year, and to 
deal with the amendments on the floor. Last Thursday, we disposed of 73 
amendments. That is no small feat, and the staff deserves our thanks 
for the long hours and hard work that made it possible.
  Among the other Appropriations Committee staff whose contributions to 
this process were indispensable are Richard Larson and his outstanding 
staff in Editorial and Printing, and chief clerk Bob Putnam and Jack 
Conway, who make sure our numbers add up as they are supposed to.
  The funds in this bill support lifesaving programs for the poorest 
people in Africa. They help protect the economic and security interests 
of this country and our allies from South America to South Asia. In a 
world as complex and dangerous as this, we should be doing far more to 
exert U.S. leadership, particularly in countries and regions plagued by 
poverty, injustice, and conflict or where the United States is regarded 
unfavorably or misunderstood. We have done our best with what we have 
to spend, and if used wisely, the funds in this bill will advance U.S. 
interests and improve the lives of countless people less fortunate than 
we are.

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