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Project FREEDOM Opening Page |
[Page: H1811]
Mr. PAUL. Mr. Chairman, I thank the gentleman from Colorado (Mr. Skaggs) for yielding me this time, and I appreciate very much his work in this effort.
Mr. Chairman, this is a very important part of this legislation. This is not BESTEA, but it is `best part.' By far Section 3002 of this bill is the best part of this entire bill. The only thing I would like to add is that the money being spent in Bosnia and Iraq, $1.8 billion, should not be spent there either, because I am frightened that we will put our men in harm's way and then a situation will occur, and it will be virtually impossible for the Congress to turn down acceleration and amplification of the conflict over there.
Mr. Chairman, it has been stated that only five times we have declared war in our history. True. But who is going to stand here and say that men that died in Vietnam and in Korea were not in a war? They were illegal. They were unconstitutional. This is a very sound effort to bring back once again the constitutional responsibility of all of us to declare war, and only Congress can do that.