Speech by Rep. Clay Shaw (R-Florida), March 29, 2000

Speech by Rep. Clay Shaw (R-Florida), March 29, 2000
Mr. SHAW. Mr. Chairman, I move to strike the requisite number of words.

Mr. Chairman, I think we need to focus on what we are talking about right now. We have heard a lot of good speeches, most of which we can all agree on, and that is the need for treatment, the need for rehabilitation, the need to do these sorts of things in the community. That is not what this amendment is about. This amendment is a straight cut.

My friend from Wisconsin spoke about the problem not being taken care of in our back yard. We are talking about what is going on in the streets in front of the homes of thousands of Americans, millions of Americans, where these drug deals are going down. The supply needs to be cut. We need to go with both the supply side and the demand side.

And now we have ourselves in a situation where a country is in trouble, the country is reaching out to the United States, Colombia is the oldest democracy, I think, in South America; and they are reaching out to the United States for assistance. They are going to accept our training; they are going to accept our resources and our assets; and this is very important.

We go over and we bomb these other countries, Libya and all these places, because they are making weapons of mass destruction that might some day hurt Americans; they may some day be used on our friends. At the same time, we are turning our heads and our backs on what is really going on, and that is this poison that is being created in Colombia and other countries in our hemisphere which is coming in and poisoning our kids and destroying their future.

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Mr. OBEY. Mr. Chairman, will the gentleman yield?

Mr. SHAW. I yield to the gentleman from Wisconsin.

Mr. OBEY. Mr. Chairman, the gentleman said that everyone agreed with us on the need for more drug treatment. Then I would ask why did the gentleman vote for a rule that prevented us from being able to provide this drug treatment?

Mr. SHAW. Reclaiming my time, Mr. Chairman, I would say that I did not say that we agreed for the need for more. We agree that the arguments that have been made is that we do need to concentrate in this area. That is very important. And perhaps when we get to the regular type of appropriation bills, this would come about.

But what we have right now is an emergency in Colombia that we need to address. This qualifies for an emergency in every way possible. And I can tell the gentleman, this particular bill came in with an open rule that opens it up to all of the areas that are before the House today, and I think that the minority was certainly handled very fairly in this regard.

But now, let us get serious on the war against drugs in this country. Let us get serious. And this is a wonderful first step. Let us not show a diminution of our resolve by starting to cut in with all these amendments that are going to be put before the House this afternoon and tonight. Let us not fall into that trap. Let us examine each one exactly the way they are. If it is a cutting amendment, that cuts down on our war against drugs, let us just call it that. It is not moving this money someplace else.

Whether my colleagues like the rule or they do not like the rule, the question is right before us very squarely, and that is are we going to cut the aid that we desperately need in order to continue the war against drugs as an ally of the Colombian government? It is as simple as that. Vote down this amendment.

As of March 30, 2000, this document was also available online at http://thomas.loc.gov/cgi-bin/query/z?r106:H29MR0-173: