Speech by Rep. Jerry Costello (D-Illinois), June 29, 2000

Speech by Rep. Jerry Costello (D-Illinois), June 29, 2000

Mr. COSTELLO. Mr. Speaker, I rise today in strong opposition to the Military Construction Appropriations for Fiscal Year 2001 and the Emergency Supplemental bill.

I supported the Military Construction Appropriation's bill when it came to the House floor for a vote last month and would have supported the bill again had the Republican leadership followed traditional procedures and allowed the two bills to be considered separately.

Mr. Speaker, I am opposed to giving the Colombian Government use of our military, supplies and additional cash reserves rather than using these funds for a number of important domestic programs. At a time when the Leadership of this Congress is proposing to eliminate funding for the Summer Youth Program, which allow tens of thousands of kids job opportunities in our home communities, this Congress is providing $1.3 billion to the Colombian Government for anti-drug efforts. A better solution would be to give additional funds to local law enforcement officials to fight drugs in our communities and to our border patrol to stop drugs from coming into our country.

I urge my colleagues to oppose this misuse of allocations included in the Emergency Supplemental bill. Vote no on final passage.

As of July 18, 2000, this document was also available online at http://thomas.loc.gov/cgi-bin/query/z?r106:H29JN0-B744: